
V 



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PROGRESS OF RUSSIA 

IN THE 

WEST, NORTH, AND SOUTH, 

BY OPENING THE SOURCES OF OPINION AND 
APPROPRIATING THE CHANNELS OF 
WEALTH AND POWER. 



BY 

DAVID URQUHART. 



" Voire veille Europe m'ennuit." — Napoleox. 



LONDON : 
TRUBNER & CO., 12, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
1853. 



MANUFACTURES 



u i 



TUCKEE, PEI^TEE, PEEEY ? S PLACE, OXEOED STEEET. 



* . vii 

mm 

CONTENTS 

if 

PAGE 

Introductory Chapter — The Crisis in the East ix 



THE WEST. 

Part I.— SPAIN. 
CHAPTER I. 

How circumstanced for the Development of Opinion . . 1 
CHAPTEE II. 

Review of past History 19 

CHAPTER III. 

Formation of Faction. Constitution of 1812 .... 27 
CHAPTER IV. 

Revolt of the Isla de Leon . .31 

CHAPTER V. 

Position of France in 1822. — Invasion of Piedmont and JNaples 37 
CHAPTER VI. 

Congress of Verona 40 

CHAPTER VII. 
Invasion of 1823 . .53 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Quadruple Treaty 62 

CHAPTER IX. 

Future Marriages 72 



vi CONTEXTS. 



Part II.— HUNGAEY. 
. CHAPTEE I. 

PAGE 

Political Value of Hungary 75 

CHAPTEE II. 

Events in Hungary 81 

CHAPTEE III. 

Diplomatic Eeview 94 

CHAPTEE IY. 

Turkish Neutrality 114 

CHAPTEE V. 

Extradition of Eefugees . . . . . ... 123 



THE NORTH. 
Paet L— SCANDINAVIA. 



CHAPTEE I. \ 

Internal Constitution 145 

CHAPTEE II. 

External Eelations .' . . . . . 158 



Paet II. — THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 
CHAPTEE I. 

The Eupture 181 

CHAPTEE II. 

Interposition of Prussia . 203 



CONTENTS. ix 
CHAPTER HI. 

PAGE 

The War 213 

CHAPTER V. 

Treaty of the 8th of May, 1852 .232 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Diet of Copenhagen and the Danish Constitution . - 268 

CHAPTER VII. 
The position of Austria in the North and in the South as 

effected by the Treaty of the 8th of May . . . .275 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Baltic and the Euxine— The Sound Dues . . .280 



THE SOUTH. 

Part I.— THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 
CHAPTER I. 

The Commerce of Europe and Asia 291 

CHAPTER II. 

Russian Quarantine on the Danube, and the Coast of Circassia 304 
CHAPTER III. 

Treaty with Austria for the Free Navigation of the Danube . 335 
CHAPTER TV. 

Apology for Russia 347 

CHAPTER V. 

Canal of the Danube 350 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Evacuation of the Principalities in 1851 . . . 353 



X 



CONTENTS. 



Part II.— THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Commercial Resources and Legislation of Turkey . . . 373 
CHAPTER II. 

Negotiations with Turkey . 382 

CHAPTER III. 

Commercial Treaty with Turkey of 1848 . . . .386 
CHAPTER IV. 

The Red Sea— Egypt ' . 411 

CHAPTER V. 

The Canal of Suez 421 

Conclusion 437 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



The Crisis in the East. 



" Catherine perceived that she could not continue her aggressive 
system against Turkey without the aid and co-operation of the other 
Powers." — Wellesley Pole. 



The present volume, though not written with a 
view to the actual crisis, may not on that account be 
the less acceptable. The pending negotiations are in 
themselves simple enough, and in as far as they have 
proceeded are before the public : the interest lies 
not in the immediate facts, but in the motives and 
position of the parties, and to these points this 
volume addresses itself. The alarm awakened pre- 
sents, indeed, a favourable conjuncture for its appear- 
ance ; although, as regards war, it is utterly ground- 
less. Russia is in the habit of setting other Powers 
by the ears, not of fighting them. If Europe is 
agitated in respect to one point, the real game is 
being played at another. 

The pretensions of Russia may be "fallacious, 
offensive, illogical, and insulting/' * but all that she 
wishes is, that you should busy yourself about her 

* Lord Lyndhurst. 



xii 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



logic, and retort her insults. To a charge of con- 
nivance with. Russia, the English Government replies 
by an allegation of deception : it was deceived, it says, 
as to the ulterior objects of the mission of Prince 
Menschikoff. That mission was all a deception ; 
what the Hungarian Refugees were in 1849, the keys 
of the Holy Sepulchre are in 1853. In the former 
year the civil war in the Duchies of the Baltic had 
to be nourished ; in the latter, public attention has 
to be carried away from the final throes of the third 
Danish Diet, as it comes under the Treaty which 
extends Russia to the Sound. Unhappy Denmark ! 
after falling among robbers in 1813, has chanced 
upon Thugs in 1852 ; the "roumal" is round its 
neck, and a quivering of life scarcely remains in 
its limbs. While your ludicrous ships of the line 
are demonstrating in the Levant, a gunbrig, with a 
will behind it, would have saved the Baltic. Your 
indignation in the South serves to mask your co- 
operation in the North; where it is displayed, it 
serves but to compromise the allies whom you 
defend. 

Your fleets, indeed, did not reach the Trojan coast 
before the step was taken on the Pruth, nevertheless^ 
that act affords to Russia the opportunity of a denun- 
ciation (note of the 2d of July) to which France 
replies triumphantly, vindicating herself from the 
reproach of having in any way interfered with Russia.* 

* " Ts T o, sir, I say it with all the power of conviction, the French 
Government in this grave discussion, has no reproach to make to 

itself." 



THE CEISIS IN THE EAST. 



xiii 



We have now a new issue to try — the conduct of 
England and France, and their intemperate disturb- 
ance of the peace of the world ; but of course, a quarrel 
is on the way to adjustment when there are grievances 
on both sides ; the matter is now reduced from the 
passage of the Pruth to the mere "form of a note." 
But we have had all this before. 

In 1849, we did not merely send a squadron "to a 
bay freely open to the navies of all nations, and 
situated beyond those limits, which Treaties forbid to 
transgress in time of peace,"* but we sent them posi- 
tively to the inside of those famous Straits ; the con- 
sequences of that vigorous act the reader of this 
volume will discover in their proper place. 

But it is surely time to ask, how there should be 
Treaties to interfere with the sailing of our ves- 
sels along any portion of the Turkish coasts, or any 
portion of the Russian coasts, far more that should 
give to Ptussia grounds of complaint regarding their 
sailing by, or anchoring, on the Turkish coasts. 
This, at any time, curious speculation derives ad- 
ditional interest from what is passing higher up in 
these waters, where we hear of some hundreds of 
English vessels caught in a trap,t and some hundred 

* M. Drouyn cle Lhuys is not correctly informed in regard to the 
Treaties to which he refers, as will presently appear. 

t Mr. Layard, haying asked if it were true that " the Eussian 
authorities had blocked up the entrance into the principal channel of 
the Danube, in consequence of which a large number of vessels, about 
370 in number, comprising some English vessels, laden with corn, 
had been prevented leaving the Danube," Lord John Russell replied, 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



thousand Bussian bayonets crossing, in diplomatic 
demonstration, the frontiers of a foreign state. This, 
if they would only, begin at the beginning, might 
furnish food for public curiosity, and supply a theme 
for the display of various affections of the human 
mind. The Treaties in question are the children of 
Naval Demonstrations, one of which occurred so far 
back as 1806, and another so recently as 1833: but if 
they had occurred in the 105th and 111th Olympiads 
they could not be more thoroughly forgotten, though 
upon them hinges the fate not of the Peloponnesus 
but of Europe. 

In the first of those years England sent a squadron 
to bombard Constantinople, and- — there is a mesmeric 
connection between the two points — another to bom- 
bard Copenhagen, This gentle violence was applied 
to induce the Turks to cede to Russia two Pro- 
vinces, the names of which were not very familiar 
at the time to the British public, and the dimensions 
of which have since been altered. Through the centre 
of the first of these then ran the Pruth, and it was 
called Moldavia ; the second was Wallachia. The 
Turks demurred ; they said they had rather stand the 
English shells than give up the Principalities; and 
the English demonstration had to sail away with the 
shot and shells on board. This result is attributed to 

" I have no information to lay on the table of the House. A letter 
has been received from one of the Consuls, stating that the ordinary 
course of the river has been impeded; but the Government have 
received no account of the Russian authorities using any means to 
prevent the navigation of that river."— July 2d. 



THE CEISIS IN THE EAST, 



xv 



the northerly wind, but it had much more to do with 
a change of wind in another quarter ; the Admiral, in 
fact, was not quite a Parker, nor the Ambassador a 
Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. These functionaries 
presumed to have qualms of conscience, and drawing 
distinctions, left open the chances to the weather. 

Now it so happened that when England was en- 
deavouring to make the Porte cede the Principalities, 
Russia was at peace with the Porte : after England 
had taken this step she entered them, but not as a 
warlike operation. 

Immediately after this, Russia went over to the 
French side (she had caused the resumption of hostili- 
ties after every difference had been adjusted between 
England and France, because the latter would not 
concur in the cession of these or other portions of the 
Ottoman territory), and obtained, in the secret article 
of the Treaty of Tilsit, Prance's co-operation in 
obtaining those very Principalities. England tardily 
sought to make up matters with the Porte, and after 
a while a Treaty was signed, in which she promised 
not to do the like again. This was the Treaty of the 
Dardanelles of 1809, in which the first mention is 
made of those Straits, and in which it is stipulated 
that England shall not again attempt to force them. 

We hear of them from that period no more until 
1833, in which year, in consequence of the refusal of 
England to succour Turkey in the quarrel of Mehemet 
Ali, and by her advice, a Russian squadron with an 
army of disembarkation reached the Bosphorus. 



xvi 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



Before its departure Turkey was called upon to sign 
a Treaty, in recompense for this succour, which was 
no other than a defensive alliance : the Powers being 
severally bound to furnish succour in case the other 
was attacked : but a secret article was appended, by 
which the succours on the part of Turkey were trans- 
mitted into a simple closing of the Dardanelles against 
any power with whom Russia might be at war. It 
was some months before Western Diplomacy made 
this great discovery, or rather perused the document 
in the columns of the Morning Herald, but in fact it 
was modest and knew the matter from the beginning, 
The same English Ambassador who from Vienna had 
written home in 1848 to foretell that the Russians 
would enter Hungary, who in 1 849 had from the same 
place announced that there was nothing in the storm 
about the Hungarian refugees, wrote also from 
luxurious Naples, to announce that the Russian 
Squadron would not leave the Bosphorus until such 
a Treaty had been extorted. In fact, the Turkish 
Government had transmitted to the English Embassy 
the draught of the Treaty so soon as it was presented 
to them. The English Government, however, laid 
up the grievance in its heaving breast, until a drago- 
man communicated the Secret Article to the corre- 
spondent of the Morning Herald ; then indignation 
arose, and energy was manifested in Downing Street. 
The English Embassy called the Porte to account, 
with exemplary vehemence, for its baseness and 
treachery ; the sentiments of the English Govern- 



THE CEISIS IX THE EAST. xvii 

ment were communicated to and re-echoed by that 
of France, and consequently the two squadrons pro- 
ceeded on their way to the Dardanelles, to support 
the notes against Turkey, and to make a demon- 
stration against Russia. They declared that they 
u would act as if the secret article had never been 
signed," which the vulgar interpreted that they 
would pass the Dardanelles. Russia replied that 
she would act " as if that Protest had never been 
made." She kept her word, because they did not 
keep theirs, but Turkey, ground between the two 
millstones, was now constrained to sign the Convention 
of St.Petersburgh, regulating the internal government 
of the Principalities so that henceforward, "the 
relation of those Empires in respect to these Provinces 
became a domestic concern which no longer regarded 
foreign states." Such was the result of two Demon- 
strations by the two first maritime powers of the 
World. 

The Treaty of Hunkiar Skelessi had, however, 
one redeeming point, — it was but temporary ; it was 
but to last for eight years, consequently the freedom 
of the Dardanelles would be restored on the 8th of 
July, 1851 : but, in the course of the previous autumn, 
another naval Demonstration had taken place, but 
this time it was in concert with Russia and against 
France. However, the two countries were soon re- 
conciled, and that reconciliation was sealed by a 
treaty which adopted and extended the secret article 
of that of Hunkiar Skelessi just one week after it 



xviii 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



had expired. On the 13th of July 1841, England 
and France bound themselves not to enter the Dar- 
danelles, nor consequently the Black Sea, for there 
is no other passage to that basin which contains ports, 
arsenals, and a navy of Russia. It was not now for a 
period of years but for ever ; it was not now in case 
of one or both being at war with Russia that they 
were to be excluded, but in peace as well as in war. 
Such then have been for the past the consequences of 
Naval Demonstrations on the Trojan coast. What 
is to be expected from the present ? Russia has not 
altered ; nor England and France — at least for the 
better; we may, therefore, rest assured that they 
will demonstrate whenever Russia requires them. 

This new attitude reveals an entire alteration in 
her Eastern policy. It has not failed to strike the 
public of this country that her conduct is strange and 
unaccountable ; but they content themselves with 
referring it to the distracted mind of the Emperor. 
His " pride, vexation, and resentment," have com- 
promised, say they, the position of Russia ; in other 
words, Nicholas is mad : he is so, just as Philip was 
mad, to the Athenians. Insanity is not on that side : 
Nicholas is not mad, but Russia is in danger. 

The West is to her as a preserve, where she goes 
forth to hunt when in want of venison, or sport ; she 
consults her pleasure only, and can subsist without 
its spoil. In the East it is her necessities that she 
has to consult ; there she cannot slumber for an hour, 
or rest for a single day ; there it is ditches she has 



THE CEISIS IN THE EAST. 



xix 



to dig, and ramparts to throw up ; it is war, not 
sport; the contest is for very life. 

The same paper that announced the formation of a 
Turkish camp on the borders of Asia Minor for the 
purpose of joining the Circassians in case of war, 
announced also the rejection by Persia of proposals 
for the cession of Astrabad, and the approaching 
departure of the fleet of Egypt for the Bosphorus. 
A universal revulsion of the East is now made 
manifest. The development of a great military 
power in Turkey, the loss of the lever of religion, 
the animosity of the populations westward of the 
Black Sea, including Hungary, the continued suc- 
cesses of the Circassians,* and the rise and growth 
of a spirit of disaffection in her own southern Pro- 
vinces, are facts which no longer require proof or 
illustration. Unless she succeeds in altering the cir- 
cumtances, Russia will soon find herself no longer 
menacing, but menaced. 

There are other matters remaining behind still 
veiled from observation. Turkey has been engaged 
in recasting her Einancial system; she has last 
year effected a change in respect to the chief in- 
ternal tax, which, by displacing the farmers of re- 
venue, has been no less a relief to the People than a 

# The Aachener Zeitung^ of the 24th June, gives as news from 
Trebizond, "that Shamyl has beaten a Russian army, and taken 
twenty-three pieces of cannon, and an enormous amount of muni- 
tions of war. Five battalions of Poles and irregular troops went 
over to the Circassians, and Shamyl has issued a proclamation, 
offering protection to all deserters." 



XX 



INTRODUCTOET CHAPTER. 



profit to the Treasury. The next step in contem- 
plation was one which would have burst the fetters in 
which its agricultural resources are at present bound. 
This Russia at every hazard had to prevent.* 

It will thus be seen that however injurious it may 
be to allow Europe to learn that Turkey is possessed 
of military power, or to provoke and excite the 
national spirit of the Ottomans, still it was a higher 
object to divert their minds from peaceful internal 
ameliorations, and by expenditure on armaments to 
deprive the Treasury of the means of making those 
sacrifices, whether in fact, or in supposition, which 
necessarily attend every financial alteration. 

The Turkish military organisation is entirely local, 
and in that consists not only its excellence, but its 
economy. The Rediff follow their ordinary occuna- 
tions and assemble for exercise only during one 
month in the year. By forcing Turkey to arm, and 
to assemble her troops on the frontiers, besides the 
sacrifice in money, there will be also the exhaustion 
of spirit and goodwill. The army, especially the 
Rediff, however ardent at present, will be disgusted 
by being uselessly drawn from their native provinces, 

* The Times correspondent from Berlin, under date of June 
29th, indicates for the first time an indistinct perception of this 

object. 

" The war winch threatens now to break out may be also repre- 
sented as a struggle between restriction and freedom in commerce. 
The commercial resources of Turkey and the Danubian Principalities 
are the prize which Russia longs to carry off." 



THE CEISIS IN THE EAST. 



xxi 



and the indignation of the Mussulmans will turn 
from Russia on their own Government.* 

Hitherto Kussia, by concealing the strength of 
Turkey, reduced its friends to subserviency, through 
their dread of irritating that moderation and souring 
that generosity, which they" believed to be the sole 
tenure of its existence. One consequence, however, 
of this assumption, was a tendency of England and 
France to draw towards each other under an innate 
sense of alarm. Russia can now dispense with pre- 
texts, and the facts can no longer be disguised. If 
she abandons the old ground, she will assume the 
new one in a striking manner, and place the military 
power of Turkey, not only in a strong, but in a 
startling light: Europe, oscillating, as is its wont, 
which dreaded but yesterday Russia's designs, will 
apprehend to-morrow Turkey's ambition. She will 
then take the place of Poland ; be the inheritor of 
the sword of Sobieski, and the barrier against a 
new outburst of Mussulman fanaticism. What to 
believe nobody will be able to tell, but every struggle 
of opinion avails for the confounding of judgment ; 
but, from the moment that apprehension for the 
stability of the Ottoman Empire disappears, will 

* This admission was recently made by the Times: — "In fact, the 
indefinite prolongation of the present state of suspense may prove 
more injurious to the Porte than war itself. These preparations have 
given a shock to the Ottoman Empire, which it will long feel, if, in- 
deed, it ever recovers from the effects of them. While our attention 
is directed to the negotiations of the day, it must not be forgotten 
that there is at the bottom of these discussions the greatest question 
which the statesmen of this age have yet to solve." — June 27. 



xxii 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTEE, 



facilities arise, for involving the Powers of Europe 
in collision with it. 

The movement on the Danube bears on the in- 
ternal condition of the Russian Empire. It is the 
exportation of those Provinces vrhich principally com- 
petes with those of Russia in the markets of England 
and Europe. They are neither subject to the fiscal 
system of Russia, nor have as yet been brought under 
the prohibitory duties established throughout Turkey 
by the English Treaty of Commerce. Her army Trill 
therefore be fed by provisions that otherwise would 
have reached the Thames, to the exclusion there of 
grain from St. Petersburgh and Odessa. The very 
connection which has sprung up between England and 
the Danubian Provinces will assist her in suppressing 
them, Her movement taking place at the shipping 
season, the City will be thrown into alarms respect- 
ing supplies which a war with Russia woidd endanger ; 
and so the English Government, if ever called to ac- 
count for not having taken effectual steps after all 
this wild agitation, will be able triumphantly to refer 
to the necessities of England as limiting their power 
of action. 

The occupation of the Principalities is a matter 
wholly distinct from the original quarrel with Turkey, 
but it was required as a preliminary. Russia has 
already twice entered the Principalities in time of 
peace, but in both cases there was a pretext : in the 
first, the war raged in Europe, and the ambition of 
Xapoleon sufficed ; in the second, there was a revo- 



THE CEISIS IN THE EAST. 



xxiii 



lution. I have for the last two autumns been look- 
ing hourly for the news of a revolution at Yassy or 
at Bucharest; however, had she obtained such an 
occasion, it would have been necessary to have re- 
commenced, on the conditions settled by the Treaty 
of Balta Liman. 

If the Russians had pushed the matter in reference 
to the Holy Sepulchre to a rupture, then the crossing 
of the Pruth would have been considered by the 
Turks as an act of hostility, and dealt with as such. 
This then was never contemplated. If the occupation 
of the Principalities had been arranged between the 
two Courts as the consequence of an insurrection, 
then a Turkish force would have entered together 
with the Russian, and her object would have been 
frustrated. The fire having been drawn upon Beth- 
lehem, she quietly marches into Bucharest, and tells 
off the garrisons for the fortresses of the left bank of 
the Danube. 

One course only was open to the Porte, and it was 
to send forward her troops into the Provinces so soon 
as the Russians crossed the Pruth. If Russia's step 
was not war, so then this was not war ; and, if war, 
it was at a distance from Turkey, on a field where 
Russia could not make it. By this every point would 
have been covered ; there was no difficulty in its exe- 
cution; the troops were there, and under the very 
same general who under precisely similar circum- 
stances, had taken the same step in 1848; the same 
general who had then been received as a deliverer by 



xxiv ESfTEODUCTOET CHAPTEE 

the WaUachiaos. With astonishment and indignation 
it lias to be asked. "What meanness, what treachery, 
has been at work at Constantinople?" There has 
been indeed neither meanness nor treachery; the 
security of the East and the peace of Europe have 
been compromised only by generous confidence on 
the one hand and friendly caution on the other. It 
will be found, if ever the matter is inquired into that 
the Turkish Government has yielded to the advice of 
the British Embassy.* 

General Valentini describes the last war as a com- 
bat between a blind man and a seeing one : and that 
war occurred when Turkey was in a state of total 
political and military disorganisation. Pozzo diBorgo 
has assigned as the ground of that war the necessity 
of breaking the new military organisation of the 
Turks 3 which prepared for Russia in his opinion dan- 
gers for the future. These dangers are novr realised^ 
and still the game is between a blind man and a see- 
ing one. Russia, by her present move, has incurred 
hazard that is terrible to contemplate. Never could 
she have risked it without a man of whom she was 
certain, as representative of England at Constanti- 
nople, t It has been avowed in Parliament that there 
were no instructions sent out. that everything was 

* At the beginning of the year, when there was some donbt as to 
Lord Stratford de Redcliffe being sent back again, the Russian re- 
presentative took care to allow his satisfaction to be detected. 

f The advice of Lord Stratford de Redehffe. in case of a war. to 
withdraw behind the Danube, has reached even the papers. 



THE CEISIS IX THE EAST. 



remitted to the judgment, knowledge, and prudence 
of the Ambassador ; and there could be no doubt that 
on the critical point for which all the rest was prepa- 
ratory, and upon which everything was to hinge, Lord 
S. de RedclifFe would suggest, and having suggested, 
imperiously require — caution; there is scarcely less 
doubt that Colonel Rose, if left in charge of the Mis- 
sion, would (being uninstructed) have said, " Of course, 
you must send your troops from the Danube if they 
send theirs from the Pruth." In fact, England having 
tremendous power and no policy, the gravest events 
must hinge upon the temperaments of the individuals 
cast by accidents into determinating posts; it is 
upon these accidents that Russia makes her game. 
In this case the individual Diplomatist to whom I refer 
stands pre-eminent in our service, and his zeal and 
interest in favour of Turkey are as unquestionable as 
has been his courageous assertion in Parliament of 
British rights against Russian encroachments. The 
matter is not therefore to be narrowed to the limits 
of individual merit or demerit ; you have not so much 
as a conception of the game into playing which you 
have been entrapped, and where your stake is equal 
almost to your fatuity. 

Let it be now noted and hereafter remembered that 
in 1848, the Russians being then in occupation of the 
Provinces, the Turkish forces crossed the Danube, 
and placed themselves there in an equality of position 
with Russia, which deprived her of the opportunity of 
using those Provinces as a basis of operation against 

b 



xxvi 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



Turkey; that it was that constrained her in 1851 
to withdraw her troops, that the Turkish troops 
might be withdrawn also, and so await the oppor- 
tunity of returning to occupy them alone. 

It was the passage of the Danube by those 10,000 
Turkish troops, which drove back 50,000 Russians 
five hundred miles, and which did more — which has 
spread the spirit of disaffection and desertion through 
the Russian army, brought in contact with the new 
Turkish Nizam, and seeing how they were treated, 
fed, and paid. Yes, the Russian soldiers fought for 
the offal of the Turkish barracks ; and the scullions, 
as they threw it out, were wont to call, u Dogs and 
Russians ! " 

But was there not an English ambassador at Con- 
stantinople when this remarkable and unexpected 
event occurred ? There was ; and the same ambas- 
sador that is there to-day j but, respecting the passage 
of the Danube, he ivas not consulted. He learned it 
only after it had taken place. The functionary who 
took upon himself the responsibility of the measure 
was disgraced; he was, however, thanked by the 
Sultan in private. 

I am under no delusion as to any use in the know- 
ledge of such facts for a people circumstanced as we ; 
but perchance the recalling of them to certain per- 
sons in Turkey, may raise a blush of shame, if not a 
sense of consequences. It is not yet too late. The 
danger is not Russian force, Christian insurrection, 
or Mussulman indignation ; but all these follow from 
English counsel. 



THE CEISIS IN THE EAST. 



xxvii 



Russia cannot at present make war on the Ottoman 
Empire, if, on commencing it, she has to start from 
the Pruth, for the following reasons: — 

The Turks being advanced into the Danubian Pro- 
vinces, Russia would require to leave a force in ob- 
servation of Circassia on the East, and of Poland and 
Hungary on the West, equal to that which she would 
employ in the Turkish war ; advancing without war 
into the Provinces she isolates those countries, and 
places so large an interval between them and Turkey 
as to prevent a rising, or an invasion. 

With the Principalities as the theatre of war, one 
campaign would be required, under any circumstances, 
for crossing them; and with the actual Turkish army 
the issue would be very doubtful; the resources of these 
Provinces would be utterly destroyed, and the Russian 
armies would have to draw their entire subsistence 
and forage from beyond the Ukraine, which is im- 
possible. 

The Turks being advanced into the Provinces can 
receive supplies and reinforcements by steam-vessels : 
Russia has no railways across her territory to afford 
her the counter-advantage. This new resource has 
opened since the last war, and is of more importance 
to Turkey than to any other Empire, seeing that it is 
bisected by water communications available for the 
transport of troops ; levies from every maritime pro- 
vince may thus reach the Danube in a week, or at 
furthest in a fortnight. 

In 1828, Russia moved across the Danube 200,000 



xxviii INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTER. 



men ; the Turks had, to oppose her, 32,000 raw recruits. 
In that campaign she was foiled. As Turkey can now 
oppose to her 2Q0,000 to 250,000 men, the best 
materials for soldiers in the world, and sufficiently 
well-disciplined, to which may be added 50,000 local 
guerillas, Russia, to stand in an equal position, would 
require a much larger force. That force she has not 
got, and if she had, she could not support it. 

It is no longer the case of the occupation of the 
Principalities as in 1850. Then there was a con- 
current Russian force ; then there was a Turkish 
Commissioner; now it will be an occupation by 
Russia alone, endured indeed by the Turkish Govern- 
ment, but without the forms of accommodation, so 
that the power of hostile action will be possessed by 
Russia and withdrawn from Turkey, a state of things 
for which there never has been a parallel, It will be 
understood, if we make the application to ourselves ; 
suppose the English government to endure her occu- 
pation of the Punjab, she, reserving to herself an 
attitude which enabled her to provoke insurrection 
or to invade at any point, on any day, what would 
the tenure of India be worth ? 

If she can so introduce herself without war (I mean 
a single-handed war with Turkey), she may win the 
great stake or cover it ; but the game will be a 
desperate one, and she will risk as much as she plays 
for. It will not then be risked for those pieces alone 
which we at present see moved on the board. Let, 
then, Europe beware of the spring of 1854:. 



THE CEISIS IN THE EAST. 



xxix 



This movement touches Austria just as much as the 
Ottoman Empire, The operation of 1849 on Hungary 
she may now try on Turkey ; she may repeat it on 
Austria. The next time the victims will not be 
the Hungarians. If the Turks do not afford them 
the chance of avenging themselves on Russia, Russia 
will for delivering themselves from Austria. Germany 
no less than Turkey is menaced from the Danube. 

These preparations are held to menace the very 
existence of the Ottoman Empire, and consequently 
the occupation of Constantinople. It has long been an 
axiom that that attempt would not be made until 
England and France " were engaged in a hot war." 
Be assured, then, that if such is her design, she has 
as effectually combined the means for that war. 
There is, however, another way to occupy the nations 
of the West at home, and that is — Revolution. 
Again, then, let Europe beware. It is no small 
matter that is in hand ; she has forced the play ; 
her resources are called up ; she drops the mask ; 
she defies at once your opinion and your power. 
In what state are you to meet such an antagonist 
— what have you foreseen — what have you done — 
what are you doing — above all, what are you saying ? 
What must be the result of a contest between 
capacity and resolution, backed by desperation, 
against imbecility, cowardice, and treachery ? 

The moment is inviting, from the ministerial com- 
bination realised in England. During the present 
generation two Foreign Ministers have alternately 



XXX 



IXTEODUCTOEY CHAPTER. 



swayed our counsels and served her. They are the 
men the most dissimilar in character to be found in 
England, and opposed to each other in politics and 
in policy; by that antagonism they have placed in 
her hands alternately the levers of Conservatism and 
Liberalism. She has them novr in the same Cabinet, 
yet neither ostensibly as Foreign Minister; in the 
words of M. Villele, she has u both the balls " on the 
table. 

She has the Press in her hands. When before 
have we seen the leading Journals reciprocaUy charg- 
ing each other with being "Russian?" Some time 
ago the Ottoman Empire inspired the last degree of 
contempt, because believed to be ruled by a Russian 
faction. We learn indeed the fact respecting our- 
selves by denunciations ; but who will say that there 
is an Anti-Russian faction ? Those who denounce re- 
present no party opposing Russia, and it is the papers, 
generally supposed to receive their inspirations from 
the two late rival Foreign Secretaries, now colleagues 
in the Cabinet, who reciprocaUy bring these charges.* 

* The Morn ing Post, July 2d, speaking of the Times, says: "A 
contemporary of ours — the tool of Russia — has plucked up courage 
enough to advise his countrymen to be cowards. Such audacious 
baseness is as curious as his complicated errors and his perplexed 
understanding." 

The Press, the organ of a powerful party, charges Lord Clarendon 
with connivance with M. Brunow. 

The Morning Herald writes : "It is merely as the head of the 
house, in which the present Premier occupies a subordinate position, 
of e Times, Nicholas, Aberdeen, and Co.,' that we ever refer to what 
it puts forward." 



THE CRISIS IX THE EAST. 



xxxi 



Meanwhile the Home Secretary announces the cordial 
and intimate co-operation of France ! 

No doubt the Nation is indignant ; but what does 
that avail with such a Government and such a Press, 
— the one filching measures, the other masticating 
news ?* 

Whatever unfortunate consequences may hereafter 
ensue, will not result from England not having taken 
up arms in defence of Turkey, but from our co-opera- 
tion past and present with her enemy ; nevertheless, 
on those who suppose that Turkey is not able to 
defend herself alone, must weigh the responsibility of 
not taking up arms in her defence. To what end do 
you maintain armaments in time of peace, if not to 
be ready on occasions of difficulty and danger? Is 
not this the point menaced, and this the occasion? 
Had you not time, had you not means ? Even when 
the English Government discovered that it had been 
deceived in reference to the mission of Prince Men- 
schikoff, could your squadron not have been sent up 
to the Black Sea? Could Russia have acted against 

* The Times, of the 8th of J uly, inserts two leaders on Russia and 
Turkey, following each other, the one preparing the nation to support 
an energetic decision on the part of the G-overnnient, the other ex- 
posing the absurdity of taking any decision at all. The process of 
contradiction is carried still further. It is employed in the same 
article, and in the same paragraph of that article, which ridicules at 
the beginning "England and France putting themselves into a 
hostile attitude by the side of the hapless and helpless Mussulman," 
and at the end asserting that " Russia would consult her interests 
as little as her honour by forcing onwards in the face of a people as 
military and as fanatic as herself," and against whom she " can do 
but little, except in co-operation" with her allies, 



xxxii INTRODUCTORY CHAPTEE. 



the knowledge of your intention to oppose her? 
Would the Turks have delayed in providing for their 
defence ? 

The Principalities from 1806, up to 1815, occa- 
sioned to England by the war resumed on account of 
them an outlay of 650 millions sterling ; since then 
we have expended on armaments 350 millions : is no 
advantage to be derived from this sacrifice ? To-day 
they supply England with its food. * Is it wise even in 
regard to that food, to submit to Russia's pos- 
session? If you are resolved to place yourselves 
entirely at her mercy, do not continue so needless an 
expenditure. 



When the ' Progress of Russia in the East/ by 
Sir J. McNeill, was planned, I undertook to prepare 
an account of her progress in the North and West. 
These materials were, however, used in fragments for 
immediate publication ; I now complete the task, and 
chiefly out of events which have occurred since that 
time. Our object in 1836 was to prevent her future 

* " Since we have opened our ports for the free importation of 
foreign grain, our trade with Russia has gradually declined, but from 
the same period that of Turkey has gradually increased ; and while 
the former has diminished nearly fifty per cent., the latter has risen 
to the same extent since 1845. In 1850 the exports of Indian corn 
from the port of Galatz, amounted to upwards of 1,400,000 quarters. 
Our exports of merchandize to G-alatz, in 1850, amounted to about 
£435,000, and to Ibrail to about £463,000. A third of our import- 
ations of foreign grain (value £12,000,000), is in the hands of the 
Greek merchants of the Mediterranean." — Rankeri Circular^ July 
2nd, 1853. 



THE CBISIS IN THE EAST. 



xxxiii 



progress by exhibiting the past ; in 1853, I have to 
sum up the march of acquisitions then undreamt of. 

The danger, which in 1836 we had to warn against, 
was the fall of Turkey : the resuscitation of the 
energies and power of that Empire have, so to say, 
caused, on that field, history to pause. The danger 
now is, war in Europe — a danger arising, not from 
the dispositions of France, but from the talents of 
Russia,* and into which we shall be plunged, not by 
any direct aggressions, not by any reciprocal violations 
of rights, for, fortunately, in both countries such 
questions must be submitted to legal adjudication, 
but by becoming mutually involved in false courses 
in third countries. 

In this review, I have, however, excluded all direct 
mention of France, because its internal state results 
from the reaction of diplomatic proceedings in Spain, 
Turkey, Denmark, Hungary, &c. I have devoted to 
Spain considerable space, as there was elaborated the 
revolutionary ferment. The invasion of Spain, in 
1823, brought the curtailment of the Electoral Fran- 
chise and of the duration of Parliaments in France, 
and provoked those endless agitations, ultimately 
resulting in the events of 1848. 

The Revolutions of that year, with the wars of 

* A great desideratum is a work on the Diplomacy of England, 
since 1792, showing how Russia has made for us our wars with 
France. The materials and the proof are to be found in the Memoirs 
of Lord Malmesbury. Pretended histories of England, France, &c.^ 
are mere perversions : for the last century, the only history is that 
of Russia. 



xxxiv INTEODUCTOET CHAPTEE. 



that wliich succeeded it, are neither isolated inci- 
dents, nor have they sprung from local and dis- 
tinct causes. At Copenhagen, Presburg, Paris, 
Vienna, Berlin, Bucharest, and Palermo, the germs 
had been severally cultured, the instruments pre- 
pared, and the parts distributed. The warlike 
operations that ensued were equally directed by the 
same hand. One of the victims has said, " the 
events of 1848-9 show, that in every Cabinet Russia 
has had a spy, and it is not too much to infer — an 
agent;"* she had no less in every conspiracy. If 
by conspiracies she upset Governments, so by 
Governments did she prostrate conspiracies. t The 
result is, that at this moment every Government 
looks up to her as its protector, and every conspi- 
rator as his patron. 

England was meanwhile engaged in managing 
mankind : her objects were the Constitution of Sicily, 
the improvement of the condition of central Italy, 
the independence of Lombardy, and the settle- 
ment of Hungary. All were in her hands ; but 
somehow everything has slipped through her fingers, 
and in a word, the word of the Times, " The conti- 
nent of Europe is governed to-day by Colonels in 
Russian uniforms." 

The entrance into Hungary of a Russian army was 
the great event of that period. A conquest was there 

* Kossuth. 

t Seven millions of adult Frenchmen rushed, in terror, to the 
polling booths to vote against the Red Republic. 



THE CEISIS m THE EAST. 



XXXV 



effected of Austria by the aid of her own troops, and 
the subjugation of the most warlike kingdom of 
Europe, obtained by the loss in battle of less than a 
thousand Russians. The occasion was prepared by 
England, who revolutionised Italy, drawing the 
resources of Austria to the South ; who then com- 
promised the neutrality of Turkey, without which 
the war could not have been brought to a successful 
issue. I have,, therefore, selected this field (Hun- 
gary) as illustration of the catastrophe of 1848, 
adding to it a sketch of the military and diplomatic 
events, and an exposure of the unparalleled trickery 
practised in reference to the extradition of the 
Refugees, and the falsehoods put forth in regard to 
the pretended support then given to Turkey. 

A separate chapter has been opened in the North, 
by the London Treaty of the 8th of May, 1852, bring- 
ing in the Emperor as Inheritor of Denmark. That 
matter being still in suspense, this statement may 
yet have a political application. At this moment 
the event hinges upon the belief of certain individuals 
that in spite of what they have done by that Treaty, 
the House of Romanoff will not succeed to the 
Danish Crown. The chief object of this publication 
is to dispel that illusion. 

These subjects I have subdivided into the West 
and the North. To the South of Russia lie the 
Ottoman Empire, the Euxine, the Caspian, and the 
Caucasus : I have here confined myself to the Com- 
mercial branch, exhibiting the steps which she has sue- 



xxxvi 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



cessively made to stop up the water-ways and suppress 
the production of the adjoining countries. 

After all, the facts are of importance, only as en- 
abling us to form a judgment of ourselves ; and herein 
lie the difficulty and the necessity of the task. " To 
praise the Athenians to the Athenians" is easy, but 
superfluous. I avow that my attempt is no less than 
to dispraise Englishmen to Englishmen. If argument 
could have availed, the work to which I am desirous 
of making the present one an humble and unequal 
appendage, England's dependency must long ago have 
been broken, and the course of recent unhappy history 
arrested. But clearly knowledge avails nothing, 
and nothing can be done save when fallacy is at- 
tacked. Russia was the subject of the work of Sir 
J. McNeill ; the Character of the Age is that of the 
present. I have endeavoured to trace home to the 
thoughts of each of us the causes of Eussia's success, 
I can scarcely believe that any man of ordinary 
capacity will lay down this volume without asking 
himself the use of Constitutional Checks, Parlia- 
mentary Inquiries, and a Free Press, and exclaiming 
with Descartes, when he contrasted the power and 
pomp of the French Monarchy with the misery of 
its People, — " La Methode doit eire mauvaiseP 

My acquaintance with the countries and men here 
treated of, has not been derived from books. All of 
the first I have visited ; with most of the second I 
have had intercourse, and with reference to the 
subjects. As to the events, I have watched them from 



THE CRISIS IN THE EAST. 



xxxvii 



near ; in respect to some of them, from myself has 
originated the plan, or the opposition. "With such 
transactions in the ordinary course of life, men exer- 
cising representative or ministerial functions can alone 
become acquainted; I have had the opportunity of 
taking part in them, on no other ground, whatever, 
save objections to measures or opinions. The key 
that has opened to me the door, has been a phrase, 
which almost invariably closes it — "You are wrong !" 

Whoever has worked out for himself his own results 
upon any field, must be engaged in a war with pre- 
judice, and even if he is dealing only with a maxim 
of finance, or a combination of chemistry, must seek 
to show that truth is on his side. The field I 
have selected is the plateau that links the highest 
summits — the practical connexion of the welfare of 
kingdoms and empires with the observance of the 
moral law. This alone is permanent, fluctuating 
with no passion, touched by no majorities. Men 
may change and circumstances revolve, but the 
position of a nation with reference to other nations is 
irrevocably fixed by its acts, which again return 
upon itself, determining its own character. What 
motives have 1 not, then, for offering proof that I am 
right ? The evidence is that my anticipations have 
been justified by results, and that even opinion itself 
has come round on many points on which it was most 
opposed to my conclusions. 

I have to deal with history — not history that has 
died, but history in action. In so presenting it, I 



xxxviii 



INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTEE. 



feel as the Chorus of the Greek stage, announcing 
the actors and foretelling the event ; like it, too, 
lamenting in vain. The audience I may assemble, 
resembles also those who witnessed the performance 
of the " Seven Chiefs " or the " (Edipus Tyrannus " 
for they come not to arrest a crime, but to witness 
a catastrophe ; not to act the part of citizens, but 
of spectators. The mimes and gladiators of old 
are replaced by Archons and Consuls; the nations 
themselves take the place of Antigone or Iphigenia, 
and are at once enchanted with the spectacle and 
victims of the plot. He who is not under the illusion, 
is as one who in a dream beholds a murder but cannot 
find breath to utter a cry ; for what does a cry avail 
when there remains no indignation for wrong ? The 
great realities of a people's life have become illusion, 
the drama is admired for its march, and pleases how- 
ever it may end. 

Where there is mismanagement it is not Institu- 
tions that are at fault, but Institutions that are falsi- 
fied. The organisation of a People is in its mind ; 
and errors are always retrievable where the root is not 
in misjudgment. That ignorance of passing events 
for which an excuse is sought in the secrecy in which 
they are involved, or in the form of Government, is 
but the result of the loss of the sense of right 
and wrong ; when that is possessed by a nation, its 
Government is under the necessity of giving a reason 
for whatever it does. 

The knowledge which is requisite for managing 



THE CEISIS IN THE EAST, 



xxxix 



our business, is so also for protecting our cha- 
racter; spendthrifts are more generally ruined by 
the dread of looking into neglected accounts than 
by the temptations which lead them into excess. 
England within the last generation — that is to say, 
since the Treaty of July 6, 1827, for the pacification 
of the East, has become involved in a multitude of 
affairs for which her own history, and indeed the 
history of no country and of no age, furnishes no 
parallel. In consequence of the influence of her name, 
every matter she has touched has become, so to say, 
a capital, or revenue, liable to dissipation ; she has 
gone on recklessly squandering, and dreading to ex- 
amine the accounts. When brought up by a humiliation 
she is ready to exclaim, " Oh, we must have no war V 9 
Such a frame of mind is not one to overcome diffi- 
culties. Even this state might have its countervail- 
ing advantages did it proceed from mere cowardice, 
for then it would be accompanied with care and 
cunning; but if reason is prostrated, passion is not 
so ; we are as ready to buckle on our armour on the 
slightest difference with a State really powerful, as 
we are to quail before a riddle propounded to us by 
one physically weak. 

One preservative effect supposed to be realised 
by our popular Constitution, is the presence of pre- 
eminent men in pre-eminent stations. Such men 
are not only held to be capable of fathoming a trans- 
action, however complicated, and grasping the leading 
features of a case, however foreign in its nature or 



xl INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTEE. 



remote in its field, but also of rising above the 
errors of their times — a condition requisite even for 
permanent fame in the management of Domestic con- 
cerns. The results, however, do not bear out the in- 
ference. Since the death of one whose name rises 
familiar to the mind and lip when it is a question of 
England's power and fame, we have seen no pre- 
eminent man, in the station of Foreign Minister. 
Such men have filled the posts of Premier and of 
Chancellor of the Exchequer. The character of our 
government is departmental ; the other ministers pe- 
riodically sit in council upon foreign matters, but in 
reality exercise no independent judgment, far less con- 
trol the mode of execution. The hours of office are 
laden with too many cares to permit of laborious in- 
vestigations in matters not affecting majorities, and 
the character of mind superinduced by free Insti- 
tutions, disqualifies politicians for seeing a world 
beyond the sphere of a debate, or the bourne of a 
division. Thus the only portion of England's affairs, 
with the exception of the Colonies, which is not so 
strictly limited by Act of Parliament that a clerk might 
perform the requisite duties, has been surrendered by 
common consent into the hands of mediocrity.* 

While by such hands is wielded in secret the power 
of this Empire, our Antagonist scrutinizes the earth 
for talents, and having found them, disciplines them 

# An exception may suggest itself to the reader ; but in that case 
the powers of the minister were revealed in his office, not displayed 
as the means of reaching it. 



THE CRISIS IN THE EAST. xli 

to an order which never has been matched, and in- 
spires them with the prospect of a triumph never yet 
attained. There are united superiority of mind, unity 
of system, permanency of purpose, the coercion of an 
iron rule, the inspiration of a golden harvest, and the 
doubly fortifying sense of confidence in themselves, 
and contempt for the rest of mankind. 

Dr. Hamel, in the St. Petersburgh Journal, calls 
the attention of the Russian public to the fact that 
" the current year completes three centuries of nearly 
uninterrupted amicable relations between Russia and 
England." The fact is also well worthy of the atten- 
tion of the British public ; there never has been col- 
lision between England and Russia. Other States are 
our friends, or our foes, according to the various acci- 
dents of the times, Russia alone has undeviatingly and 
on system been our enemy, — against her alone of all 
the States of the world, have we never drawn the sword. 
In all times, under all administrations, England has 
been her private property. Flusters of opposition perio- 
dically flare out, but they are commissioned, and inva- 
riably end with " entire satisfaction " on the sacrifice 
of the State, or interest, which had given rise to the 
discharge of notes, or the parade of ships of the line;* 

* In 1801, Denmark; in 1807, Denmark ; in 1822, Spain; in 1827, 
Persia ; in 1829, Turkey ; in 1831, Poland ; in 1833, the Dardanelles ; 
in 1836, the quarantine on the Danube ; in 1837, the Vixen and Cir- 
cassia ; in 1838, Persia ; in 1846, Cracow ; in 1849, Hungary and its 
exiles ; in 1850, Greece ; in 1853, Wallachia and Moldavia — event 
not doubtful. 

On May 21, 1853, the representation of the Powers at Constanti- 
nople answered the appeal of the Turkish Grovernment, by stating 



xlii 



INTEODUCTOET CHAPTER. 



a farce, harmless indeed in itself, but of deadly effect 
on the States immediately endangered, who are 
thereby led to confide in lis ; the system marches 
with the regularity of machinery, the method of a 
drama, and the facility of a dream. 

At no former period has the Commonalty occupied 
itself with the respective merits of implements of 
war; and that not with a view of achieving con- 
quests, but of resisting, purely ideal for the time, 
projects of Invasion. While needle guns and long 
range are evoked whenever we speak of France, 
is it not worth while to consider what the influence 
may be of the discoveries in chemistry, mechanics, 
and engineering, effected during this peace, on the 
designs of Russia ? The vast extent of her own ter- 
ritory ; the distance which is placed between her and 
the vulnerable points of Europe and Asia, together 
with the obstacles presented to the movement of 
troops by her own deficiencies and mal-administration 
have hitherto paralysed the operations of her army. 
A new era opens for her with railways. With 
those already commenced in Poland, linked to Ger- 
many; with that projected from Moscow reaching to 
Odessa, and established as she will soon be on the 
Isthmus of the Baltic, and the mouths of the Elbe 
and the Weser, she will be ready to smite Europe 

that they " are of opinion that in a qnestion which touches so nearly 
the liberty of action and sovereignty of His Majesty the Sultan, his 
Excellency Redchid Pasha is the best judge of the course to be 
adopted, and they do not consider themselves authorised in the 
present circumstances to give any advice on the subject." 



THE CEISIS IN THE EAST. 



xliii 



at any point : she will come too as a protector. 
Thus have those Arts and Sciences which are the 
boast of Civilisation passed into the service of the 
Barbarian. 

This revolution in the art of war, coinciding with 
Russia's expansion to the North and South, renders 
the contest infinitely more deadly, or ' would do so if 
there were a contest. Nature seems capriciously to 
have formed Europe to illustrate these new inventions. 
It consists of a peninsula, stretching to the south-west, 
from a basis which is Russian territory; at each 
angle there is a vast space of sea, enclosed, and having 
a narrow entrance, or outlet. By means of galvanic 
batteries and submerged floating mines connected 
with them, these narrows may be rendered impassable. 
Neither is at present in her possession ; they may be 
sealed against her. In her possession, they will be 
sealed against Europe. Then will she command the 
materials requisite for war, and hold in her hands 
the food of nations. 

It has long been the habit to dispose of all warn- 
ings by the trite phrase " Russia is a poor country, 
she cannot get money, and without money war can- 
not be made." All these acquisitions have been 
effected in peace. Poor as she is, she has so 
husbanded her means, and you have so mismanaged 
your wealth, that she has been able to come forward 
to support the tottering credit of the Banks of London 
and of Paris. The house of Rothschild may hold 
down the head of the Emperor on the grinding stone 



xliv 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



of an artful contract, but Russia commands the mo- 
netary operations of the two first capitals of the 
world, and controls their policy by the Stock Ex- 
change. 

To the nations of Europe the Currency is a wholly 
distinct matter from Metaphysics ; so are both from 
Military affairs ; all three are so again from Com- 
merce ; Politics is another walk, and another again 
is Diplomacy ; Religion is not only distinct, but has 
nothing to do with any one of them : the men engaged 
in each know nothing of the other. For those who 
manage the affairs of Russia every branch of science, 
every field of knowledge, and every motive of the 
human mind is equally possessed and mastered, and 
the combination of the whole is — Diplomacy. 

Knowledge is not Power, but he who is cunning is 
powerful. Did we bestow upon the great interests of 
the State the care which is given to the construction 
of a railway of ten miles, Europe would be at peace 
and at rest. Indeed the end might be secured at 
less cost; it suffices to withdraw your Embassies. 
How can an age, which derives its instruction for 
practical life from the history of Greece and Rome, 
be afflicted with the illusion that a Foreign Depart- 
ment is a necessary portion of a State? That 
system cannot work which involves two opposite and 
hostile maxims; it is self-condemned either way. 
To be rational, not to say prosperous, you must 
institute secrecy in your domestic concerns, or submit 
your external ones to control. If you will maintain 



THE CRISIS IN THE EAST. 



xlv 



your Embassies, then sink your Navy.* Disposing 
of the " moral " means of the Admiralty and Horse 
Guards, the Foreign Office will put down this Empire, 
unless it be itself put down. 

* A sailor on board Admiral Duckworth's squadron, being asked 
what sort of vessels the Russians had, answered, " Russia ivants no 
navy: she has ambassadors!" 



N. B. I would direct attention to the Chapter on 
the " Evacuation of the Principalities/' p. 363, where 
the present circumstances are not only foreshadowed, 
but expressly stated. That Chapter is the resume of 
a Memoir drawn up at the end of 1850, showing that, 
with a concurrent Turkish force occupying the Prin- 
cipalities, Russia could make no impression on Turkey. 



* 



THE WEST, 

Part I. — SPAIN. 
Part II— HUNGARY. 



cc No man is by nature either an aristocrat or a democrat ; 
their disputes relate not } then, to system of government, hut to 
tlieir own advantage" — Lycurgus, 



These pages were written in Spain in 1846, and were to 
have been published under the title of " Account of Spain 
with Europe, in Invasions, Interventions, Mediations, 
and Marriages," as a warning against the danger of two 
nubile Princesses. The manuscript somehow disappeared 
on its way to Madrid. A copy, however, having been taken 
by the precaution of a friend, and recently discovered, I 
have thought it might be of use for the "Europeans" 
themselves. 



PART I. 

SPAIN. 



CHAPTER I. 

How circumstanced for the Development 
of Opinion. 

This age is distinguished by extent of knowledge and 
contrariety of judgments, — a misfortune no less than a con- 
tradiction and which arises out of the habit of attaching 
importance to News. Things which, if announced before- 
hand, would be held too improper to be possible, are, when 
done, taken as the data on which maxims are to be formed 
for our future guidance. Our morals as nations are what 
the morals of individuals would be who took for their 
standard facts, — that is, the cases brought for trial before 
the courts of law. Thus it is that knowledge is divorced 
from wisdom, and that we have much speech and little 
profit. 

Unless a man knows what, in a given case, ought to be 
done, he can never know what has been done ; information 
can be of service only to them who can class it — be it science, 
be it conduct. In the latter case, the difficulty of classing 
does not arise from ignorance. The task is here to unlearn ; 
— the life of the spirit is on the lip ; whoever chooses may 
stop on it the garrulity of his fellows, and this is all that is 
required to recover from the decrepitude of his times. 

i 



2 



SPAIN. 



The order of societies does not depend upon the equality 
of size and strength of its members, but on the submission 
of their differences to that process of investigation which 
distinguishes men from animals. The rights of states are 
equally independent of niimbers and dimensions, and consist 
in the human character of reason belonging to all the indi- 
viduals composing them. That differences be brought to 
adjudication, not only by the authorities of the nation, but 
by each separate man, is the purpose of international law. In 
this consists the equality of states, — in this the freedom and 
virtue of each member of a community, and indeed his 
quality as a reasoning being. 

Individuals may, and generally do, profit by the wrong 
they do; not so communities, and therefore is a public 
crime by nature wholly different from a petty one. It thus 
interests no less the powerful than the weak to guard that 
public rule of right on which depends alike internal freedom 
and general peace. And in truth this is the excellent, the 
abiding part of all governments and of all systems : it is the 
health common to all, without the variety of the infirmities 
of each; it is the 44 law of nations," because respected 
equally by all. It emanates from no human authority, be- 
cause it is the source of all laws, and is enforced in every 
judgment rendered, for a village or for an empire. No 
compact violating it can bind ; against it no prescription 
hold. It requires no interpreter ; it brings its own penal- 
ties when infringed, and its recompenses when obeyed; 
it has not to be taught — it is already known ; it may for 
a season be obscured, but each man can himself find it 
again. 

This rule is no less simple than authoritative, and consists 
in these two commandments : " Thou shalt not steal," 
— " Thou shalt do no murder." There is no possible 
injury that a state can inflict, or suffer, not provided for by 
these two laws. 

It is not less in the conscience of all beliefs, than in the 



DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 



3 



theory of all legislations, and stands alike by Divine com- 
mand and human ordonance. The petty malefactor sins 
only — the malefactor community is degraded and enslaved. 
It has denied faith when it has broken law — lost conscience 
when abjuring freedom, and becomes an infidel at the same 
time as a robber. 

It will not fail to strike, that it is no hypothetical case 
which I am here putting. Every reader will understand 
that it is the actual condition of the states of Europe that 
I intend to describe, and there is no Spaniard who will ques- 
tion the accuracy of that description. But as the individuals 
who compose those states are singly neither lovers of blood 
nor seekers of prey, it must be by some great and general 
mental perversion that they have sunk as nations, to a con- 
dition abhorrent to themselves as men. This perversion is 
to be found in the representative form of government. Each 
man holds himself to be free from guilt, by that very absence 
of knowledge, which converts it into judicial blindness. 

The law of nations is careful to arrest the beginnings of 
evil by keeping distinct the concerns of independent states. 
Any interference, however slight or disguised, is as grave 
a crime as slaughter or invasion. One state cannot even 
hold intercourse legally with another, except in the same 
manner as practised by private individuals when they go to 
law, and place their concerns in the hands of a lawyer. The 
sword of justice is placed in the hands of a king only for 
self-defence. Communications not called forth by such 
necessity, coalitions founded thereon, destroy equality be- 
tween states, subvert international law, and extinguish the 
sense of right amongst mankind. This is what we call 
diplomacy '.* 

In the origin of every community, intercourse with foreign 
powers has been entirely prohibited, except as the residt of 

* There may be treaties to interfere in the affairs of others, but 
these are violations of the laws of nations, and such a treaty adds 
merely the guilt of conspiracy to that of violence. 



4 SPAIN. 

a special and judicial decision. The kings and princes of 
our (jothie races might decide upon internal affairs ; inter- 
national ones were only treated of in the common council. 
The senate and the councils of Eome dispatched domestic 
business ; international affairs were decided and even ma- 
naged by a legal and religious body. Spain's last effort 
for her liberty, three hundred years ago, was directed against 
the assumption of her kings to make peace and war, and to 
conclude treaties without the assent of the Cortes.* In 
England, no minister of state can lawfully to this day hold 
so much as intercourse upon public matters with the minister 
of a foreign power, unless specially commissioned by the 
competent authority. For every such transaction, a com- 
mission must issue under the great seal, and on the respon- 
sibility of the Chancellor of England himself ; for this he 
requires a warrant of the privy seal, which can be appended 
only after a decision of the privy council, signed by the 
counsellors who advised the measure. f Such was the 

* " No king shall make war with another king or queen — peace or 
truce, or any important act, without having taken council with 
twelve ricohombres and twelve elders of the country." — Fuero de 
Navarra, b. i, tit. h 

"Whenever the king shall have occasion to make war, he must 
assemble the procuradors or Cortes, to explain its causes, that they 
may say if the war is just or unjust ; so that, in the first case, the 
people, recognising it to be useful, shall furnish the necessary aids, 
and that, in the second, that no war may be declared or made." — 
Cortes of Valladolid, 1520, readdressed by sixty-nine members of 
the Cortes to the Xing on the 14th of April, 1814. 

No wonder that, "up to the commencement of the sixteenth 
century, the Cortes were always regarded by the Spaniards as their 
most precious institution, and as their port of safety in unhappy 
times." — Miraflores, vol. i, p. 59. 

No wonder that the modern Cortes and constitution should be the 
source of the evils for which it was the remedy, and of the disease of 
Spain for which it was the cure. 

f This statute has been repealed. 



DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 



5 



elaborate care taken by our forefathers to preserve them- 
selves from foreign crimes. Theirs was the wisdom which 
exhibits itself in knowing how to keep things in order, 
There were few facts in those days because there was judg- 
ment, and there being judgment there were no opinions. 

When the return to this rule is urged, the answer is, " This 
process is incompatible with our present multiplied relations ; 
no legal officer could take upon himself the responsibility 
of the things daily done by the governments of Europe." The 
object of restoring the ancient law is to put an end to the 
present practice, which consists in exercising a power in 
foreign countries which no minister possesses at home.* 
Such acts alone constitute our multiplicity of relations and 
their guilty character. This is what goes under the name 
of policy. 

But we have gone a step further. Parliaments and Cortes, 
instituted to control the officers of state, have usurped their 
functions, and appoint them — thus have been revolutionised 
our Gothic kingdoms, and the liberties of their separate com- 
munities extinguished by their representatives. The same 
change extends itself to nations : kingdoms are now extin- 
guished, as formerly boroughs were, by the representatives 
they appoint. Hence have ensued those varieties of conditions 
between communities which had hitherto been presented only 
between their members. Their equality before the law being 
lost, their relative position depends upon their respective 
strength and weakness. This has introduced the distinction 

of " FIRST AND SECOND RATE POWERS." 

Conferences of the first of these take upon themselves to 
decide upon what the second shall do, or be made to do, of 
their own free will,f by fear of consequences or dread of 

* For instance, levying a private war on the allies of the Queen of 
England, as a minister of England did in respect to Spain — con- 
spiracies to bring about revolt, &c, as done again in Spain — changing 
the laws, customs, taxes of a province, as was done in Syria, &c. 

t " The principle that every nation has a right to manage its own 
internal affairs, so long as it injures not its neighbour. To this 



G 



censure,* and this process is denominated moral influence. 
To obtain this " influence" is the duty of the powerful ; to 
endure it, a necessity of the weak.f 

This amalgamation does not require concurrence, or entail 
concert : alliances spring up, the counterpart of the factious in 
the separate states, such as the " Holy," the " Constitutional," 
the "Continental," "European," "Western," "Northern," 
" Transatlantic." No single nation can make out what part 
it has been made to play, or what share it has had in the ag- 
gregate efforts of "influence"on themselves, or on others : losing 
power over their acts they mistake their interests, and out of 
the chaos a false order has arisen; again relative strength 
and weakness lose their places, and the case is resolved 
into relative cunning. Law had been displaced in favour of 
force, force now yields to secrecy. Events appear the 
result of chance, and the hand that wins is that which is 
unseen. Every new event is a new perversion. Eacts are 
as false as maxims, fallacious, and the sources of history are 
poisoned for future generations. The sum of these misjudg- 

principle I most cordially assent. It is sound— it ought to be Saceed, 
and I trust that England will never be found to set the example of 
its violation." — Lord Palmerstorfs Speech, of 1st June, 1829. The 
cheers of both sides followed this declaration : the speech in which 
it was uttered, and of which it is in doctrine the leading feature, 
raised to the management of the foreign affairs of England the 
minister who has made Europe what she is to-day! 

* Sir It. Peel declared, in reference to Don Carlos, that so much as 
a recommendation was unjustifiable from a stronger to a weaker 
state, because it would be the overthrow of the independence of the 
weaker one. 

f " When protection was most needed by the Christian popu- 
lation of Syria, France had withdrawn herself from interference 
altogether : since she has again taken her proper place in the con- 
ferences of the great powers on Eastern affairs, she enjoys her full 
share of influence, but no more. It must unquestionably fall to the 
lot of each power to obtain redress for injuries done to its own sub- 
jects — yet the general policy to be pursued in the province (of Turkey) 
must be regulated by general considerations" of the great powers. — 
Guizot. 



DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 



1 



ments resulting from their responsibility of ministers at home, 
and secrecy in their acts abroad, is called Public Opinion. 

" He," said Mr. Canning, " will form but a poor estimate 
of the value of constitutional freedom who does not take into 
account the power of the press." Let us consider, also, the 
value of this mechanical contrivance for multiplying ideas : 
we are certainly not destitute of materials. 

Between 1832 and 1846, Spain had been the subject of 
above 5,000,000,000 of printed columns, written, published, 
and read throughout Europe. Has Spain been benefitted, or 
has Europe been enlightened ? A province of Africa having 
been misgoverned by a civilised nation * for twenty-two 
years, the "Press" has been engaged thereon with equal 
intentness, with the effect of rendering it half waste, and 
France wholly savage. Need I proceed to other fields to con- 
vince at least the Spaniard that Mr. Canning was a dreamer, 
or that he inflicted a sarcasm on fools, who hailed it as an 
oracle ? 

The association of Spain with the doctrines of Europe is 
accidental; her adoption of its terms imitative only. The 
malady thus exhibits features more hideous than elsewhere, 
and a salutary effort is still within human reach; already 
has an authoritative voice been raised in warning, — " the 
opinions of Europe," said Savaadra, "are a worm eating 
into the bowels of our state." Unless Spain will so give 
peace to herself, she must remain degraded unto the field of 
Europe's bickerings, and be the source to her of endless 
suffering. 

Eome and Carthage maintained between themselves respect- 
ful and courteous relations for several centuries. In both, 
the law of nations was an object of special instruction, and 
enforced by an authority distinct from the executive. 
Carthage being older and more corrupt, first turned longing 

. * " This great movement of emigration (5,000 cavalry, 30,000 foot, 
and more than 20,000 tents) changes the character of the struggle — 
Abd-el-Kader carries off the population that we have been able 
neither to organise, administer, or govern." — Algerie, 



8 



SPAIN. 



eyes upon Sicily. Eome became jealous* and the first Punic 
war ensued. Carthage next endeavoured to regain in Spain 
the ground she had lost in Sicily, Eome sought to counteract 
her in Spain by opposing to her there an " influence/ 5 instead 
of calling her directly to account. Thus on the soil of Spain 
commenced the struggle which ended in the extinction of the 
one and the decline and fall of the other. 

England and France remained from the Heptarchy down 
to the accession of William of Orange without cause of quar- 
rel, except such as arose out of conflicting claims of feudal 
seniorage. A new one then came, whence have sprung the 
great wars of a century and a half, and caused ten times the 
blood to flow that had been spilled in war in ten times the 
previous number of years. This new cause was precisely the 
same as that which produced the wars between Eome and 
Carthage and on the same field. 

Spain cannot be properly called either a first-rate or a 
second-rate power. Unlike the first, she is engaged in no 
designs dangerous to the independence of her neighbours; 
and, unlike the second, she is not liable to be coerced. She 
is free from the immorality of the one, and above the neces- 
sities of the other. Yet has she neither the strength that 
springs from the absence of unjust purposes, nor the repose 
that results from an unassailable position. It is that her 
uprightness is not of the heart nor her strength of the spirit. 
Unassailable by arms, she is subdued by words. Guiltless 
of designs upon others, she is guilty of their designs upon 
herself. She who was recently the bulwark of the liberties of 
Christendom, presents a picture of degradation, such as was 
never seen even in the darkest age or amongst the corruptest 
people — Ministers alternately raised to power by the ma- 
chinations of rival foreign governments ; the road to office 
being treason and conspiracy. The like was not in Poland, 
even when occupied by foreign troops. Her factions spring 
neither from the power of a despot, nor the turbulence of a 
mob, nor the strength of an oligarchy, nor the privileges of 
an aristocracy, nor the power of a church, nor the reckless 



DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 



9 



misery of a nation ; but solely and simply from the assault 
made on the ancient rights, usages, and immemorial customs 
of a people, by the desire of some to be like strangers, and 
by the profit a few others make of the confusion so intro- 
duced. Spain's sole evil lies in a mistake. 

As contract is the basis of civil law, so much the more 
must it be so of international relations. Spain's dealings with 
foreign powers may, therefore, be considered as a succession 
of bargains, and yet she has nothing to seek or to gain from 
them, and the only pretext for bargaining between her and 
them must be Iter interest; as she cannot be coerced by them, 
it is only practicable by her will. Nevertheless, all such 
bargains are one-sided ; one party only is taken into account, 
and that one is never Spain. In every matter discussed be- 
tween her and a foreign power, it is not the interest even of 
that power that is considered, but the purposes of its minis- 
ter, and that with reference only to the purpose of some other 
minister. Her sufferings are as indifferent to them as her 
rights. Anger and contempt, nay violence, ensue if she is 
not submissive, and she who has provoked no resentment by 
her conduct, discovers that she equally provokes it by pre- 
suming to have a will of her own. 

For any equality to exist, she should be seeking influence 
in England and France, supporting a M. Guizot or a Sir 
E. Peel, a M. Thiers or a Lord J. Eussell. She, proud, 
strong, tolerates a French or an English ministry, and vir- 
tuous France and England impose what they would not 
endure. But this interference may be a beneficial superin- 
tendence : truly her foreign friends must be profoundly wise, 
if not singularly wicked. Every Spaniard is either ungrateful 
to a watchful providence or friendly to an evil genius, and 
while he remains in doubt, he combines the shame of guilt 
and the penalty of error. 

If it be said that he is no dupe of their benevolent 
pretexts, I ask, who but Spaniards render the foreigner 
preponderating? As well might an army in the field of 
battle expect to beat their enemy's left wing, by joining the 



10 



right, as they to subdue Trench influence by leaguing with 

England, or English influence by joining with France. 

If France and England difl'er in purpose, they are one in 
character. Their object is not conquest of her, but compe- 
tition between themselves. In their diverging views appear 
their coinciding immorality. She would be safe even if 
nn endowed with sense, were she destitute of sensibility. 
There is a common expression in Spain, " You did it for your 
o?m ends." This is a graceless recognition of benefit received. 
The foreign governments, on the other hand, have ever on 
their lips " TJie good of Sjjain" Let us test by recent facts 
the value of the admission and the assertion. 

When the French invaded Spain in 15:23. it was professed 
that the sacrifice was made on account of Spain, to restore 
order. Some years after the minister revealed the true cause. 
French interest. And what was this "French" interest ? Tne 
restoring of vigour and spirit to the French armies, and the 
consolidating of the monarchy by the restriction of the 
electoral franchise and the prolongation of the term of 
parliament ! Purposes which, if revealed at the time to 
France, would have been held more hostile to France than to 
Spain. So soon as the foreigner had gained his end, or 
fancied he had done so, he retired, after having taken the 
poignard out of one desperate hand and placed it in another 
more savage still. 

England vehemently denounced this attack on the "in- 
terests" of England, but did nothing more. Had she then 
adopted the pretended doctrines, or associated herself with 
the secret purposes of the French minister? No. Her 
minister had concluded that the French would leave their 
bones in the Peninsula, and on the entrance of the French 
troops exulted in Trance's miscalculation ! His reasoning on 
Spain, like that of the French minister, had jiothing to do 
with Spain, but with France. "'Eights of nations/' "Eng- 
lish influence," were all as nothing compared with the master 
question of triumph for England at the expense of France. 

Twenty years later there was a regency in Spain during 



DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 



II 



the minority of the Queen, nominally English. The French 
agents judged the opportunity come for labouring at the 
great work. They set themselves about upsetting the Re- 
gency, and, like a Bedeinar or a Boutenieff, by conspiracy 
and bribes. So hurried were they, that it was against an 
order of things which had only a year to live, that 
this assault was planned. The administration which they 
assailed was, however, the most hostile that Spain ever had 
to the material interests of England. It had refused that 
so much agitated treaty of commerce ; it had shut out the 
Basque provinces from English trade ; and had actually cut 
off Gibraltar from the coast navigation. It had also adopted 
the system of French centralisation, opening new projects of 
ambition, by violating the Fueros of the Basques ; and of all 
these acts it was on England herself that fell the odium and 
obloquy. Why does France break down this minister 
(Espartero) so invaluable to her in Spain ? — to secure in 
Paris a triumph over England to the ministry of peace every- 
where and always. 

But it was not France, but Spaniards, who effected these 
things. The thought of attempting them sprung only out 
of Spanish resignation, and then the act is quoted as evidence 
of Spanish independence. She has blended the name of her 
factions with that of her neighbours. It is not Whig or 
Tory. It is not Liberal or Legitimist. It is French or 
English — the old story of the hats and bonnets of Stockholm. 

With this new maxim of intervention must have arisen 
new methods of management. If one of the business men 
of the great European governments were inclined to be con- 
fidential, he would tell you that foreign transactions have to 
be considered under three points of view : — 

First — As affecting the chambers. 

Secondly — As affecting the other powers. 

Thirdly — The case itself. 

Supposing a lawyer into whose hands a case is put, were 
to reason in this fashion, his language would be plainly this : 
"Before I look into its merits, I must consider if some one 



12 



SPAIN. 



will make it worth my while to abandon it." Such is the 
rule of the great nations in the most solemn matters, and of 
persons selected as preeminent for all the qualities that can 
adorn a man or preserve a state, and into whose hands is 
remitted the fullest power for the execution of the most 
sacred functions according to the highest justice ! 

Abd-el-Kader makes from Morocco an irruption into the 
Algiers territory. The French people are all excited. The 
government has to act. Morocco had done nothing. It was 
Morocco and not France, that was endangered by Abd-el- 
Kader. It was the African army that preserved Abd-el- 
Kader as the means of carrying on war. The French 
government were no sharers in this wish, and had no more 
designs against Morocco than Morocco upon them. But 
they have to consider the case with reference to the opening 
of the chambers. They must prepare a paragraph for the 
king's speech, and want a victory or a surrender. An ulti- 
matum is sent, and thus may a war of extermination be 
opened or rendered subsequently inevitable, merely to justify 
a paragraph in the speech, which half an hour after it is 
delivered, is worthless and forgotton. 

The next point which they would have to consider is Eng- 
land, whether or not she would take offence, and, if so, how 
it would affect their conjoint negotiations at Buenos Ayres, 
or the Lebanon, or Queen Pomare. In fact, as in dealing 
with Spain, in sending the ultimatum, Morocco would be the 
last thing thought of. 

But more insignificant considerations even than these 
determine the greatest events. Some years ago, France 
made war upon the Spaniards of Mexico, because they 
resisted a demand which the French government knew to be 
fraudulent, and had a year before as such refused to entertain. 
But the editor of the ' Journal de Paris,' Mons. Fonfrede, 
had been at Bordeaux, and there became the guest and ad- 
vocate of the claimant. At this time, a division had arisen 
between the chief members of the cabinet, M. Guizot and 
Mole, and the latter desirous of securing the c Journal de 



DEVELOPMENT OF OPINION. 



13 



Paris' against the former (that paper having been established 
by the king), came into the terms of M. Fonfrede, which were 
war with Mexico. No sooner was the money extorted, than 
proceedings were taken at Bordeaux against the claimant by 
his French creditors ; and it was proved that the entire value 
of the cargo, for a portion of which the Mexican government 
had had to pay £60,000, was under £6000 ! The legal 
disproof before the French courts of the claim France had 
enforced by war so shocked the press, that no journal w T ould 
give publicity to the fact except — for a consideration : the 
< Memorial Bordelais ' got 3,000 francs (£120) from the 
Mexican Consul for the insertion of the report ; an extract 
in the 8 National ' cost 10,000 francs (£400). M. Mole 
lives — his days neither conscience nor the law will shorten. 
The poor editor alone suffered, for his end was hastened by 
the discovery of the fraud in which he had been made an 
unconscious instrument. 

England sanctioned this outrage on Mexico, understanding 
its nature just as well as M. Mole, and tamely suffered the 
injury inflicted upon her own trade. Indeed, it was she who 
gave effect to the- French blockade by acknowledging it, 
when the French courts of law refused to admit it. Such are 
the villanies that pass under the name of policy among 
nations who call themselves free, Christian, and civilized. 

The first step Spain has to take is to draw a line between 
Europe and herself. Her force consists only in the detestation 
with which she utters the word " stranger ; " without this 
she can have neither virtue nor peace. She suffers at 
once from Europe's character, thoughts, and acts, — how deep 
ought that abhorrence to be ! Besides the Spaniard, Europe 
presents four primitive races not infected with the vulgarisms 
of London and Paris — the Jews, the Turks, the Gipsies, and 
the Kussians. They make no distinction of English or 
French, German or Italian. They know them, or hate 
and despise them as one. To the Jew, they are the " heathen*' 
still ; to the gipsey, " Buseo — by this distinction, these 



U SPAIN. 

wanderers and outcasts contrive to live. Let us glance at 
their mighty compeers. 

Who, deserving the title of philosopher, has not been 
astounded at the permanency of an empire sustained in Europe 
by not more than a million and a half of Tartar shepherds, 
and its resistance to the assaults of two redoubtable neigh- 
bours, backed by the hatreds, the opinions, and the arms of 
all Europe? This is the secret, the Europeans to them are 
" dogs." They despise not the Christians, their own sub- 
jects ; they opened a refuge to the persecuted Christians of 
Europe, and the Jews expelled from Spain. This contempt 
of the Turks for Europe 'has been Europe's safeguard, 
for it has sustained their empire. In that contempt all 
good things are included— respect for law which Europe had 
forgotten — freedom from faction, which is Europe's pride. 

Who has not gazed with amazement, if not with fear, on 
the expansion of the Colossus of the North ? Ignorant and 
savage, divided and debased, that power threw off simul- 
taneously with Spain the yoke of the Mussulman; where 
is Spain to-day— where Russia ? The Russian knows well 
the map of Europe and the names of its people, yet they 
are to him all as one — they are the scliwab — the " dumb. 
Alas, that they are not so ! 

Deem not that the progress of Russia is attributable to 
characters belonging to the Sclavonic race. The Pole is of 
the same race ; his state was great and glorious when Russia 
was as weak as now she is ambitious. The Pole, like the 
Spaniard, imitated Europe, and in his factions allied himself 
with this and that neighbour till he had prepared them and 
Poland for a partition. The weeds of Paris became the 
flowers of Warsaw, as now they are of Madrid. May the 
fate that has overtaken the one, serve to avert it from the 
other. 

In England, great and small, wise and simple, con- 
sider foreign affairs not as the affairs of England, 
but as the affairs of other people. To tell them that 



DEVELOPMENT OE OPINION. 



15 



England is intriguing in Spain, conveys no more sense 
than if they were told that she was intriguing in the moon. 
Thus is a free scope left to all intrigue, and we have nothing 
to depend upon save the practical obstacles that rise in our 
path. 

If the Spanish people have these causes of grievances 
against the people of England or of France, what are the 
grievances that these have against the Spanish people ? May 
not the Erench say with justice to the Spanish, we do not 
know what our government does, diplomacy is a mystery 
impenetrable to us but not so to you, upon you is the 
edge, upon us only the after recoil ? You feel the blow, and 
you tell us not — nay, you invite it. Had you not, as for 
instance in 1834, accepted, nay, clamoured for, intervention, 
there would have been no diplomatic pottering, no fortifica- 
tions of Paris, and England and Trance would have reposed 
in the security of their united strength. 

What a position is not open to the minister in Spain who 
should take his stand against all interference ? He would 
expose himself to no danger, because a foreign power works 
only on the dissatisfaction of the people, and dissatisfac- 
tion spring from this very cause. Spain has no invasion 
to dread. Such a minister would command the services, 
wherever useful, of both the foreign governments. What induce- 
ments are there not in the ministerial declarations of London 
and Paris — " I will not interfere unless France does." " I 
will not interfere unless England does." One condition 
is however requisite, that of popularity. Party sustains the 
minister in the Cortes, but neither party nor Cortes will 
sustain him in Spain. No minister can be popular except 
one who knows how to govern Spain : and for this he must 
be a Spaniard. It is not from that class that her ministers 
and her members of Cortes are chosen. These, like her 
Hybrids of old, are begotten only upon Spanish mothers, and 
like them speak a foreign tongue — these Political Economy, 
those Latin. Try Spaniards in tongue, and dress, and heart, and 
then you would see how easy what I have spoken would be 



16 



SPAIN. 



to do. Then you would see Spain no longer the dependant 
of foreign councils, the discussed of their parliaments, or 
the pitied of their market-places — no longer the victims of 
stockjobbers, scribblers, milliners ; but in her traditions, her 
manners, her dignity, her equal distribution of wealth, reading 
a lesson to distracted Europe. 

Revolution here comes never from the people, but from the 
government. Disorders do not spring from the soil, but from 
the Cortes. Any government would be strong that contented 
itself with governing, and abstained from legislating. 

A Spanish lady, who had been present at a conversation 
with some Spanish " politicians," remarked after they were 
gone — " I don't see why we should do for a nation what it 
would be absurd to do in a family — for nations are only many 
families. If things went wrong in this house, I should have 
to put them in order — not to copy what next door had been 
done for some other purpose. What is good, is good for 
itself, and I am a fool if I have to borrow it." 

It has been said by one of the strangers to whom they 
applied to construct for them a constitution, that of all 
species of literary labour, the easiest is legislation. They 
have gone a step farther, and dispensing with the trouble 
of compiling, have been content to translate : they have not 
thought worth while to execute what they translated, and 
for thirty years have been fighting for a constitution which 
they have never read. 

The constitution of every country is that which is un- 
written ; for the first enacted laws only mark the incipient 
aberrations. When these accumulate, come reforms having 
reference to special wrongs. It is impossible to transfer from 
one country to another the rectification of an abuse, for the 
subject matter does not exist, and the primeval unwritten 
thought cannot be transferred. But it is not to be supposed 
that the reform had been in its own land applicable, for the 
people who have endured a wrong must be incapable of recti- 
fying it. A naked man you may clothe, but to introduce a con- 
stitution is introducing a costume — you must strip him naked 



DEVELOPMENT OP OPINION. 



11 



first, and if he is unwilling you will have the old set of clothes 
rent and the new trampled under foot. Constitutions cannot be 
propagated like trees by slips, nor like lettuces by seed. You 
may make drawings of a machine and construct another like 
it, but you cannot so fashion men. You may run metal into 
a mould, but you cannot cast a nation. It would be more 
wise or less foolish to use the English or the French tongue 
as a means of rectifying the provincial accent of Catalonia or 
the Asturias than the laws of either countiy to improve their 
condition; it would be as judicious to substitute the 
language of either country for that of Castile, and as practicable 
too, as to replace the customs of the one by the constitution 
of the other. To take our laws, that is, our modem ones, 
which are the remedies of our evils, and to impose them upon 
Spain, is the same thing as to take the medicines from the bed- 
side of one patient and pour them down the throat of another, or 
the infected bandages of a man diseased to strap down a man 
in health. 

The good that is in England and Prance is in the peoples 
— their knowledge, activity, and enterprise. The government 
is the source of all our social ills : these we bear up against 
by our individual qualities, and Spain would copy our go- 
vernment as a means of making up for the want of our 
industry ! 

How is it that the rulers have not perceived a truth so 
evident ? Because they are hybrids, foreign bastards — neither 
Spaniards nor Eomans — European Creoles, whom their fathers 
despise and their mothers cast off. They are changed not 
at birth indeed, but at nurse. Spain will have foreign nurses, 
and they bring her home gipsies. 

This spell can only be broken when some one man, how- 
ever humble in station, shall arise, capable of grappling with 
the intellectual fallacies of Europe. Until then — vast, yet 
compact, with a people of provinces but of one name and race, 
liable to invasion with difficulty, open everywhere to receive 
support, and standing between the two great rival powers of 
Europe, each of which are alert and ready as one man to fly 



18 



SPAIN. 



to her succour if assailed bodily by the other — she will remain 
the sport of minions and the plaything of intrigue. 

During the last century, while as yet no Spaniard was 
known by any other designation, than that of his country and 
his province, the Peninsula was the chief cause of the great 
European wars. It was then only the ambition of disposing 
of her crown, or the desire of acquiring her possessions. There 
was in each of her two neighbours a guilty purpose, but 
there was as yet no conspiracy to undermine her independence 
by working upon her broils. Circumstances then altered ; 
the violence of popular commotion having ceased in the one 
country, and rude trials having matured wisdom in the other, a 
new system commenced— schemes of conquest were denounced, 
justice was the policy adopted, freedom the treasure in which 
they gloried : but, not indifferent in their happiness, they 
sought to extend to all around the benefits they enjoyed. 
What is the accomplishment ? Who shall know the begin- 
ning and believe the end, or seeing the end recollect the 
beginning ? 

Then was faction born in Spain: it reached maturity at 
its birth. They called on either side to their aid, the parental 
sympathies of the neighbouring states, but Constitutionalist and 
Absolutist soon became English and French, Thus has opened 
for Spain the old prospect under new names : thus again re- 
appears for Europe the old dangers. England and Prance 
now join to do for their common gain, that which each 
would have then regarded as a national loss. Por her 
thrice in three generations has Christendom been wasted with 
war. On the next signal blast she will no longer be the 
guiltless victim, but the guilty cause. Her hands will have 
taken down the buckler from the wall and pulled the spear 
from the earth. Her hands will have saddled in their stalls 
the " pale horse of death and the red of destruction," to ride 
up to the bridle in Spain's best blood. To Pome she gave a 
sword — for Europe she prepares a torch. 



CHAPTER II. 



Beview of past History. 

The structure of Spain, not a peculiarity of race, has given 
to events at the remotest periods a consanguineous character. 
It is an island with the dimensions of a continent — fortresses 
with pasturage grounds — denies and rocks and mountains, 
with arable land for tens of millions of men. As there is 
nothing like it in the composition of any other portion of the 
earth, so is it unlike it in its fate and history to the remainder 
of the human race. Circassia is an inaccessible range, and it 
may be a barrier of heroic defence ; Switzerland, a fortress 
of rocks, without the substance of a nation, leaving no room 
for a throne — a centre of contending interests, sustained by 
the jealousy of neighbours more than by the heights of the 
Alps. 

Spain, surrounded on three sides by the ocean as a ditch, 
on the fourth by the Pyrenees as a rampart, and not exposed 
to immediate and constant danger, is armed neither in mind 
nor in body against invasion ; defence by the distribution of 
the mountains, and the hardihood and local attachment of the 
inhabitants, commences only after she has apparently been 
prostrated. She has thus exhibited an unvarying paradox to 
the eyes of successive generations, being the easiest of nations 
to conquer, and the last to be subdued. 

Here, then, it is not Iberian, Goth, Saracen, or Spaniard, 
whose character we have to examine, but it is the influence on 
man of a certain configuration of country, where mountain 
and plain are mixed together in sufficient dimensions and 
extent to present a large mass of human beings, forming a 
champaign and sea-board kingdom, with the attachments of 
mountaineers and their defences. 

The attachment to their community and their customs 
stiffened them against the centralisation of power, and made 
them hold, in an equal degree their enemy, the government 



20 



SPAIN. 



that invaded their franchises, or the foreigner that occupied 
their soil. They did not however divide apart into clans and 
cantons : and constituting a general government, there was 
the form of monarchy and the practice of republicanism, 

The strangers thought that influence over the government was 
influence over Spain, but when they pressed upon its weakness, 
they only strengthened the unknown Spanish people; therefore 
have results belied in every case judgment, and triumph over 
her has been a prelude to defeat. In this anti-national con- 
dition of their government, the Spaniards have been deprived 
in every crisis of the advantage of concerted action, but have 
regained that of local and individual resolution. 

If an enemy presented itself on the shore of Kent, all 
England would rush thither as to the point of defence : broken 
there, she would bow the neck. Austria could be subdued at 
an Austerlitz, and Paris even taken at a Waterloo. Not so 
in Spain: the enemy is at Pampelona; the Biscayan says 
"bueno. I shall be ready at Bilboa and so on, district 
after district, mountain after mountain. The Spaniard 
waited at home, as he did in the days of the Scipios, to defend 
his house and his fueros, and does not hold them lost by what 
happens elsewhere, whether the victory of an army or the vote 
of a Cortes. 

This similarity of character, and events at the most remote 
periods, is rendered so striking by present circumstances, that 
I may be permitted to revert to Carthage and Eome. 

To both Eepublics Spain then stood as she would now to 
England and Prance, were she at the time the peninsula of 
Hindostan. 

It is to be observed, that that war was not an invasion 
of Spain, but a contest in Spain. We derive our impressions 
of the event from Eoman writers. Had we the annals of 
Carthage open to us, we should find that alarms for the 
encroachments of Eome had invested the Carthaginians with 
the character of protectors. This is proved in the very event 
that completed the subjection of Spain to Carthage, and that 
occasioned the war between Carthage and Eome. 



EETEOSPECT. 



21 



Spain then furnished to Hannibal means for the invasion of 
Italy, alike by the occupation of the Eoman armies far from 
home, and by the auxiliaries who aided him at Trebia and 
Thrasymene ; but these would not have availed unless Spain 
had furnished other and indispensable resources. 

We have standing armies defrayed out of the ordinary 
expenditure of the state ; but in ancient times there was 
neither standing expenditure nor the resource of temporary 
loans. The nations feebly organised for assault were power- 
fully organised for defence ; disciplined invasion required 
gold in hand. This gold was furnished to Hannibal by the 
mines of Spain. 

The whole military history of the ancient world is one of 
metal. It was the treasure of Susa and Ecbatania that 
rendered illustrious the field of Marathon and the narrows of 
Thermopylae. It was the mines of Philippi that brought the 
subjugation of Greece, and reared the empire of Alexander, 
It was the treasures of Toulouse that, changing masters, 
effected the conquest of Gaul ; so was it the mines of Bar- 
celona that brought first the passage of the Alps, and then 
the disaster of Cannae. 

No sooner was Italy, by means of Spain, overrun, than 
Spain rose against Carthage. In about the same time that 
it had taken the three chiefs of the house of Hanno to subject 
her to the Carthaginians, the three Scipios transferred her 
to Eome. Scarcely had the conquest of Carthage been 
effected, than the Spaniards, abandoned and betrayed by the 
only power that could have defended them, rose again to 
assert her liberty as well as their own, and replied to the 
Eoman pro-consul that their fathers had left them steel 
to defend, not gold to redeem, their inheritance : Eome, 
departing from her wont, found gold more useful than steel ; 
and Spain could alone say of Eome, that she dreaded less 
her arms than her arts. The war commenced with Saguntum, 
and concluded with Numantia, — one population devoting 
itself for Eome, the other for Carthage. 

On the fall of Carthage, Eome became the world; the 



SPAIN. 



contentions between her factions presented, like the rivalry 
between independent nations, occasions for the assertion of 
the liberty of the smaller states. Spain alone judged of 
these occasions, and acted in these events. Thus in the 
contest of Marius and Sylla, she reappeared on the field, 
and during ten years defeated the finest armies and baffled 
the ablest generals of the republic. She was indeed under a 
Eoman leader, but he, a fugitive, whom she invited and in- 
vested with command : her triumph was again the shame of 
.Rome, and Sartorius fell, as Viriathus before him, by the hand 
of an assassin. 

Next came Caesar and Pompey ; again she was in arms 
on the side of the vanquished, offering asylum in her fast- 
nesses and defenders in her sons, to the beaten faction. After 
the cause was desperate, and Eome and the East in the hand 
of the victor, and the corpse of Pompey on the sands of 
Canusium, she arose to restore the contest for Eoman 
liberty, and Caesar had to win the world a second time on 
the plains of Munda, where he avowed he had to fight for 
life — not victory. 

Actium did not close the temple of Janus ; in the midst of 
a prostrate world, an army had to be led into Catalonia 
and the Asturias ; the benign and benevolent Augustus, 
surpassing the ferocity of his predecessors, suffocated whole 
populations in those caverns whence was to issue m a future 
generation the avenging genius of a Pelagius. Agrippa, too, 
closed his career of victory by that one most dearly pur- 
chased, most hardly won, and most mercilessly used, on 
Celtiberian soil. 

What a contrast with Gaul and Britain. The progress 
of the Eoman arms against these nations was gradual and 
systematic. The fiercer spirits driven backwards held their 
ground ; and into the extremer regions, for centuries, Eome 
did not penetrate : they took no share in the play of Eoman 
faction; when subject, they followed thefortunes of their leaders, 
when independent, they equally resisted whatever bore the name 
of Eoman. Spain, in contradistinction to all the races sub- 



RETROSPECT. 



j u gated by Rome, with the exception of Greece, thus exhi- 
bited a pliability of genius such as might have been expected 
in an old and polished state. Much as to day, while reputed 
a stranger to Europe, she has excelled us in branches where 
least we would have expected to find competitors beyond the 
circle of our ideas and instructions. She entered with facility 
the intellectual existence of her victor, rival led him in all the 
fields of literary and philosophic excellence, and contributed 
to the common glory, greatness and refinement more than 
her share of poets, rhetoricians, historians, philosophers and 
princes.* The first stranger admitted to the honours of 
Rome was a Spaniard ; and it is in his family mansion pre- 
served by the ashes of Vesuvius, that the opportunity has 
been best afforded to us, of estimating the dignity of a Roman 
patrician. 

The periods of the Visigoths and of the Moors, although 
those which confer upon Spain its historic value and ro- 
mantic character, do not in respect to our subject afford such 
salient features as the earlier and more recent periods, save 
indeed that both found the conquest easy, and the retention 
difficult ; nowhere else were the barbarian occupiers of the 
Roman provinces expelled — nowhere else have the Saracens 
been driven back. Under these catastrophes, Spain as usual 
seemed to recover force and life from those very changes that 
in ordinary cases cause the fall of empires, and in the midst 
of those external circumstances which denote the decline of a 
people. 

No sooner had the crowns of the kingdoms of the Peninsula 
been united and the Moors expelled, than Spain was, as it 
were, ravished from herself by the union of her crown with 
the imperial diadem. From that time " this noble country 
has been the appanage of some foreign family without having 
been conquered by one of them." This is the period in her 

* Quinctilian, Columella, Pomponius, Mela, Floras, Lucian, 
Seneca, Hadrian, Trajan Theodosius the Great &c. 



24 



SPAIN. 



history which represents the centralized power gathered in 
from the plains, as opposed to the decentralizing and retentive 
faculties of her mountains. 

Neither under the Austrians nor under their Bourbon suc- 
cessors, did the encroachments of the central government 
reach to that point that the villager got sight of his enemy ; 
therefore Europe mistook the power of Spain to do injury 
to others, and her might to defend herself. The indifference 
of the people was construed " power of the crown." When 
the most ambitious of mortals — the most daring and cunning 
of his age, King of Spain and Eoman Emperor, held as hope- 
less captive, the King of France — well might Europe trem- 
ble for her liberties, and apprehend that the dream of univer- 
sal empire was about to become a reality. It was dispelled 
by no diplomatic combinations or warlike efforts. For its 
accomplishment it wanted only in the breasts of Spaniards 
the lusts or the slavery that constitute the character of a con- 
quering people or forms the implements of an ambitious king. 
The victorious armies of Charles were defeated by the Cortes, 
which refused supplies for a war which it judged neither 
necessary nor just. 

The successor of Charles, however, found resources in- 
dependent of the Cortes : though no longer master of 
Austria, Portugal was added to the Spanish crown with all her 
commerce : in the religious strifes in which he engaged, 
he had the faculty of arousing the bigotry of his people. 
Here, however, the internal rights and local independence of 
another portion of his dominions were the safeguard of neigh- 
bouring states, and the treasure of American as the blood of 
European Spain were engulphed in the Netherlands. Soon 
afterwards Catalonia's resistance enabled Portugal to eman- 
cipate herself. Nor was it possible even here, in reference to 
so near a neighbour, to arouse the evil passions of the Spanish 
people. 

And with all these events before us, the present generation 
neither knows that Spain has rights, or that it has internal 



RETROSPECT. 



n 



freedom : neither do they know that it is these, and not the 
fictitious adjustment of the dimensions of states, that are the 
curb upon ambition, and the foundation of peace. 

From groundless fears regarding the ambition of Spain 
under the first two monarchs of the Austrian line, Europe 
passed into an equally erring judgment of her decline of 
the fifth and last. They treated her at the close of the seven- 
teenth century as in the present day they treat Turkey ; they 
called her a corpse, and they coalesced to ensure the demise 
by a division of the carcase. England, France, and Austria 
signed, in anticipation of the death of Charles II, in whose 
person they seemed to consider Spain to exist, the infamous 
act called the Partition Treaty, and the commencement of 
such crimes in Europe. 

The folly of the design was soon shown to be equal to its 
iniquity. Spain, thus menaced, accepted a French prince. 
The treasures of England were squandered, — in vain she 
poured forth her blood and that of Germany, and the war 
ended by a Treaty to sanction the settlement which they had 
taken up arms to prevent. Spain, too, whose maritime power 
had previously been extinguished, regained strength in her 
struggle with the mistress of the seas, the benefit whereof was 
transferred to England's rival — France, and cooperated in 
wresting from England her North American possessions : 
it was again placed at the disposal of France during the 
first short war at the beginning of the French Revolution. 
The naval power of both was indeed broken by England, and 
that of Spain utterly extinguished at the battle of Trafalgar. 
It was for France that this sacrifice was made ; it was on 
Spain that fell the penalty, and England rejoiced in the injury 
that she had done her, as being the most effective means of 
weakening France. 

Now again was the judgment of Europe to be exercised ; 
Spain was again but a corpse : such was the judgment of 
England on the one side, and of Napoleon on the other. It 
was a country which he could outrage at his pleasure, whose 
fortresses he could occupy without a struggle, whose princes 

2 



2-5 



SPAIN. 



lie could kidnap like the negroes of Guinea, on whose throne 
he could place, as on those of the Europeans, a puppet with 
a crown. The result was that Napoleon went to Elba. 

Between 1690 and 1807 no change had taken place, there- 
fore, in the material condition of Spain, and no improvement 
in the perceptive faculties of Europe* 



*6cL r 3 ci inoir aoeloqzy/L l&rh sew tossi eilT nwoio 
CHAPTER III. 

Formation of Faction. Constitution of 1812. 

Up to the close of the great continental war there had been a 
total absence of political differences; the opposition to Govern- 
ment had been by province, and then of a practical kind only ; 
there had never been a Eevolution. The people had met by a 
stubborn though isolated resistance every encroachment of the 
Crown, and had fortunately never been exposed to usurpations 
by a Parliament. Thus had been preserved less obliterated 
than elsewhere the footsteps of early freedom. The people 
were, indeed, indolent and ignorant, but there was amongst 
them contentment and equality, a fair distribution of the goods 
that they possessed, no depreciation of one class by misery, or 
elevation of another by pride of station or wealth ; sedulous 
politeness linked together the classes of society, and kept open 
running the fountain of charity with its twofold blessings. 

Madrid was not properly a metropolis. To the foreign 
families who had slipped into the occupation of the throne 
this city was as a permanent camp, to which they retired 
from Spain, and whence they commanded but did not 
govern it. A vast mass of functionaries were employed in 
the central government and inhabited Madrid, but Madrid 
contained no manufactory of laws, and the agents of the 
Government never took out of the hands of the locally elected 
magistrates the administration either of province, city, dis- 
trict, or village. Thus did the Government remain distinct 
from the people, and the people, being admitted to no share 
in it, preserved at least their character ; they remained men of 
Valencia, Estremadura, of Seville or Saragosa. 

This original framework was preserved by a variety of cir- 
cumstances, — the mighty chains of mountains to which I have 
referred, the absence of roads and the difficulty of communica- 



2 S MB I TO^ffOTITaZOa 

tion, differences of dialect and of costume, and corresponding 
animosities ; in fact, the administrative physiognomy was of a 
remarkably oriental character. While the internal dissensions 
of the other countries of Europe invited the progress of the 
French revolutionary arms, or paralysed the resistance to her of 
the great military Governments, no more effect was produced 
by the new and exciting doctrines on the Spanish than on the 
Turkish people. Yet after these Governments had been seve- 
rally discomfited and collectively reduced, Spain, which was 
deemed sunk in the darkest night of ignorance and superstition, 
rose single-handed, and astounded, without enlightening, the 
Europe she saved. When Spain commenced this enterprise 
she was without a king, an army, or a navy ; her entire central 
administration was in the hands of the Erench, together with 
her capital, the head of her church, and the chiefs of her 
nobles : she was deprived of all that visibly constitutes 
power, and this precisely was her strength. Then reappeared 
the Spain of Saguntum and Numantia, and, nearer to our 
times, of Barcelona and Saragosa, — names which will yet be 
fresh when European Civilisation will have departed to the 
same place as the Eoman sword and the Moorish scimitar. 

Between the commencement and the close of the struggle, 
that is to say, from 1808 to 1815, the country was occupied 
with very different matters than politics, and under any cir- 
cumstances the time was too short to allow of any marked 
change in doctrine or opinions, which are necessarily of slow 
growth ; and yet shortly afterwards the Peninsula is so trans- 
formed that we find it engaged in a devolution. It is essential 
to note, since we transfer to this country the notions which we 
entertain of others, that there never had here been a devolution, 
and that it was here the people, and not the Government, who 
rose to resist the Erench, We have, therefore, a phenomenon 
to account for, one wholly unparalleled; it is rendered 
the more inexplicable by the fact, that in the short interval 
between the period when theoretical principles were wholly 
unknown and that at which a devolution was accomplished 
and a Constitution introduced, the people having been engaged 



CONSTITUTION OF 1812. 



29 



in a desperate war against an enemy who was the patron of 
so-called liberty, in their minds must have been associated 
constitution with invasion, despotism with independence : 
but, in fact, the infection that was repelled by the braced 
arm and the rigid muscle in the front of the battle, penetrated 
from behind by the flaccid and ignoble parts. 

While the Spanish people were on their rugged sierras, 
their smiling vegas shrivelled by the breath, and their fair 
cities levelled by the tread of war, a few black-coated men 
had assembled in a church, travestied into a theatre, in an 
alley of a remote city, guarded by the fleets of an Ally. This 
assemblage, aloof from danger and undistracted by care, was 
not engaged in procuring supplies, or in furnishing to their 
struggling countrymen clothing or ammunition, — they were 
framing a Constitution ; in other words, they were passing 
a decree of annihilation upon the rights, the customs, and 
corporations of the Peninsula, for its separate kingdoms had 
their Constitutions and their several Cortes. The crime of 
the Burgundian and Bourbon despots had amounted to no 
more than this, that they did not convoke them ; the self- 
appointed Conclave of Cadiz undertook to destroy them. 

When the Parliament of London absorbed into itself that 
of Edinburgh and that of Dublin, not only were separate acts 
required from the body incorporating and the bodies in- 
corporated, but Treaties also were entered into, and conditions 
established : the measures propped up by these forms were 
enacted in the eye of the nations themselves, but they were 
still held to be invalid by the lawyers of the greatest weight 
of their respective times, and denounced as suicidal by the 
patriots of highest name. What would have been said had 
some Chartist Convocation decreed of their own authority a new 
law for the three kingdoms, which was to supersede all their 
laws and to extinguish their three Parliaments by the erection 
of a new and distinct body ? Such was the Constitution of 
Cadiz, and so absurd was it felt to be, that it fell stillborn. 

If this new Constitution had been the wisest ever conceived 
and the justest ever possessed, no less- would this character of 



30 



SPAIN. 



violence attach to it ; but it was at once the most foolish and 
the most violent of legislative measures ; it was a mere tran- 
script of the dreams of the previous century, which had placed 
the enemy against whom they were struggling in the hands 
of a despot, who had practised against Spain the basest of 
felonies, and had found in the French nation the docile 
instruments of his malignant will. 

In fact, the self-appointed gentlemen who assembled in the 
church of San Felipe Neri, were doing nothing more or less 
than preparing to impose on Spain after she should have 
triumphed the yoke of the enemy she had vanquished,— and 
worse than the yoke of that enemy, for the French would 
have respected, even as victors, those local privileges and 
general rights which the old despotic monarchs of Spain had 
been unable to subdue. 

The king returned and swept away the idle fiction; but as the 
Constitution had sprung from one of the European factions, so 
did he call in the doctrines of the other to counterbalance it. 
Now no longer content with that despotic authority which had 
hitherto prevailed, he embodied therewith centralisation and 
uniformity. The failings in the character of the monarch found 
neither guidance nor restraint in those who surrounded him, and 
whose habits had ceased to be Spanish ; and the people who, 
unlike those of Germany, had neither made conditions in sup- 
porting their monarch, nor expected advantages as a conse- 
quence of their triumph, were taught to believe that there 
must be some virtue in the Constitution when they discovered 
so much vice in those who hated it. Thus in four years was 
Spain, always indifferent to what passed at Madrid or which 
had reference to its central Government, thoroughly disgusted 
at the existing state of things, and prepared to accept with 
favour any change. 

So far, the direct agency of no foreign Government appears, 
but now the necessary elements for foreign intrigue had been 
created in the engenderment by imitation of the contrarieties, 
which in the other countries of Europe have sprung from real 
causes, and required centuries for their development. 



CHAPTER IV. 
Revolt of the Isla de Leon. 

In the course of the year 1819, troops had been collected 
in the arsenal of Cadiz, called Isla de Leon, destined for the 
re-conquest of the American colonies i they were neither 
recruits nor regiments, but composed of soldiers drafted from 
the whole army, with the view of purifying it of restless 
spirits engendered by the war of Independence and of dan- 
gerous opinions evolved by contact with the French. The 
expedition had been planned no less for the safety of old 
Spain than for the recovery of the new. But instead of 
instantly despatching this menacing corps, it was retained in 
a confined and inattractive cantonment, and lay for many 
months in an inaction that must have disorganized the best 
disposed and best officered troops. The principle that had 
dictated the drafting of the men had also been followed in 
the selection of the officers. What then was to be expected ? 
In fact, it was of public notoriety that a revolt was preparing, 
and the views of the government were held to be a mystery 
solvible only by the supposition that these projects had high 
support. The General went to Madrid to represent the 
danger — he was displaced. Two captains of men-of-war 
reported their vessels which were to transport the troops to 
America to be unsea worthy — they were deprived of their 
command. The Government then adopted a measure, the 
effect of which was too clear not to have been foreseen, that 
of granting one step in rank to each officer ; every incentive 
to undergo the dangers and the sufferings of a transatlantic 
campaign in crazy vessels was thus removed. In a word, 
nothing was left undone to foment discontent and to en- 
courage insurrection ; the Conspiracy was perfectly public. 

But who within the Government could be suspected ? This 



32 



Id I SPAIN. a o TJ0Y&H 



matter was under the direct control of the king, and none of 
his immediate counsellors either belonged to the opposite 
party or were suspected of treachery. There was, indeed, a 
second party within the royal one— that of Don Carlos— but 
still less than to that of Ferdinand could such designs be at- 
tributed. So far the public facts— indubitable and systematic 
support given by the Government to the Conspiracy, almost, 
indeed, its Organisation— no clue whatever to the motives or 
the persons who wielded this sinister influence. sosaq 

A quarter of a century has effaced the interest connected 
with this event, but the period is not so extensive as to have 
engulphed all contemporary evidence. In the hope of finding 
some clue I repaired to the spot : the first person whom I 
met was the astronomer of San Fernando, who from his 
observatory, twenty -five years before, had watched the motions 
of that tumultuous Camp. To my question respecting the 
source, his answer was " Eussia." I inquired whether he 
expressed an opinion prevalent at the time : he answered, 
"Everybody knew that it was her doing ; she had great in- 
fluence at the Court of Ferdinand YII ; she openly patronised 
the Conspiracy ; she had here a most intelligent agent, a Pole, 
and M. Tatetschef himself came down." 

It was in the silent streets of San Fernando that these 
words were uttered : they proceeded from a man grave by 
his character, distinguished for his acquirements, and who 
was utterly unconscious of their bearing and their value. 
Here was no theory that twisted cases ; no foresight warning 
of future peril : it was merely a fact which he recorded, the 
knowledge of which had led to no conclusions, and which 
was about to die away in the narrow circle of the village 
where it had occurred. 

It was impossible here to resist the temptation of experi- 
menting upon the cataract on Europe's eye ; I therefore 
objected to Signor Cercera, that Eussia was an absolute 
power and very far away ; that she could have nothing to 
do with Spain, or, having so, could have no hand in Con- 
spiracies. His answer was to the following effect : — 



BEVOLT OE THE ISLA DE LEON. 



S3 



" What you say is no doubt true, but I have only repeated 
the general belief at the time \ if, however, I were to express 
an opinion of my own, I would say, that although she may 
be in principle absolutist, she had a hand in the revolt, because 
she had an interest in the success, — an interest of a pecuniary 
nature. The vessels in which the expedition was to be 
embarked consisted of nine sail of the line, belonging to 
Kassia, which had been detained during the war, and on the 
peace, not being in a state to reach the harbours of the Baltic, 
she had sold them to the Spanish Government for a good 
price. If they were not deemed able to reach the Baltic in 
1814, there was little chance of their reaching America in 
1819, so that if the expedition had sailed, it would certainly 
have gone to the bottom, and she w r ould have been called on 
to refund the price of the ships. At all events, this was the 
way in which at the time we explained her patronage of the 
revolt." 1 "Aiggua 

Again I ventured to object that the mystery was not 
solved ; that the influence of the Court of Eerdinand, which 
had enabled her to make that government foment a Con- 
spiracy, must have sufficed a hundredfold to cause the ex- 
pedition itself to be abandoned. Again my informant was 
ready with an answer 

" A few years after the revolt, in reading the message of 
the American president, after the death of the Emperor 
Alexander, I discovered that she had another motive ; for in 
that document it is said that Eussia had given to the Go- 
vernment of Washington the assurance that she would prevent 
the sailing of the Spanish expedition, and had given her 
guarantee that it should never quit the port of Cadiz" 

On further objecting, that this furnished no key to the 
transaction, as this end could equally have been obtained 
without the Conspiracy, it came to my turn to be questioned ; 
and when I pointed out the chain and sequence of events, 
which all hung upon d'lsla de Leon, viz. the Constitution 
of Spain, the spreading the flame of political discord 

2 § 



3 1- 



SPAIX. 



to the inflammable materials prepared in other parts of 
Europe, whence the convulsions of Italy ; the imposition by 
the Xorthern powers of an armed Intervention by France, 
the reaction in Spain, the monarchical reaction in Prance, 
leading to a democratic one ; and these being steps only in a 
progress of exhaustless patience and matchless enterprise 
towards the dominion of a desolated world ; when, I say, I 
offered this as the explanation, there was nothing therein 
either visionary or startling to a man who knew of his own 
knowledge that the Proclamation in Isla de Leon of 'the 
Cadiz Constitution of 1 S 1 2 had been the work of that Go- 
vernment which had instituted the " Holy Alliance." 

It was by a word dropped on the subject of this Eevolt at 
the opposite extremity of Europe that I was first attracted 
towards those subjects, and, indeed, I may say at once 
initiated into their mysteries. I had arrived from Greece, at 
Constantinople, just in time to be present at a fete given to 
commemorate the Peace of Adrian ople. I was much sur- 
prised to find myself the object of the sedulous attention of a 
Eussian diplomatist who had recently been on a mission to 
Greece. He took the trouble to indoctrinate me : the Greeks, 
he informed me, had from a horde of pirates been humanised by 
the magic genius of a single man who was now the idol of 
their affections, at once their Lycurgus and their Mahomet.* 
Astonishment deprived me of speech, and I sat listening in 
amazement. I had seen so far already as to know that the 
conduct of England and France in Greece had been atrocious 
and perfidious, and I looked to Russia as the only hope for 
that country, as she might be inclined towards them on the 
score of religion, and her agents could not be so stupid as those 
of her allies. When the Eussian had done with me, in my 
perplexity I asked one of the Prussian secretaries of Legation 
the meaning of the words I had heard, and inquired if Eussia 

* This was in reference to Capo d'Istrias, — a man universally 
abhorred and ultimately assassinated, and whom England had forced 
upon the Greeks. 



REVOLT OF THE ISLA DE LEON. 



35 



could really have some object in injuring Greece. He smiled, 
and said, " Did you ever hear of Isla de Leon ?" I an- 
swered, "No." "You know, at least," he replied, "that 
Spain is always in trouble. Her trouble commenced with 
that Revolt. That mm Russia s work, and such is her work 
everywhere." 

Distance is nothing to systems that work by the spirit, 
and Russia's victories have been gained more by wheels than 
gunpowder, by courtiers than armies, — the deep no less 
than the land furnishes her a path. The viewless messages 
which thus reach Europe's bounds span the Atlantic ; and the 
Colonies lost to Spain, and which she was bargaining with 
the United States that Spain should not retake, were on the 
very point, had it not beeu for the resistance of Canning, to 
render her the centre of a European Combination for their 
reconquest, and of an American Confederacy for their defence. 
The barbarians who have hitherto subdued Europe presented 
a physical object, and they had virtues and introduced laws. 
This Invasion is one which the eye cannot see, nor the hand 
resist ; it is not the march of armies, but the spread of 
infection. The Vandals, to kill the living by the dead, 
slaughtered their prisoners around the cities they besieged ; 
so Russia has found the secret of infecting Europe with its 
own corruption. Preserving intact the spirit of barbarism, 
she culls from Europe its sciences of philosophy and destruc- 
tion. 

Gibbon concludes his observations on the fall of the Roman 
empire of the West with these memorable words of unparalleled 
infatuation : — 

"Cannon and fortification now form an impregnable barrier, 
and Europe is secure from any future eruption of barbarians, 
since before they can conquer they must cease to be barbarous. 
Then gradual advancement in the science of war would always 
be accompanied, as we may learn from the example of Russia, 
with a proportion of improvement in the arts of peace and 
civil policy 7 they themselves must deserve a name amongst 



36 



SPAIN. 



the polished nations they subdue. We may therefore acquiesce 
in the pleasant conclusion, that every age of the world has 
increased and still increases the real worth, the happiness, 
and the knowledge of the human race." 

Four short years had thus sufficed to plant in Spain the 
fulcrum of Faction, hitherto unknown ; the levers were to be 
worked from afar, by what process it will be now our task to 
trace,— with what effect, future generations alone can tell, 
ban" mmtiDasvL 10 aoiUim a ilsd avods doidwiri e 3no suobrsnq 
aanqiasns xib airolmq oa rri baaoqoiq iaa^do adT 6 badaiiaq 
tol aaaibai nisldo oi 8BW ii i miesdoous baiuqaib a ion 8BW 
sew ii ibdvlo rm iaa-xaini ifonail n 8bw aiadi t eshu[ni oa 

ad* bavIoYiix baa ^aohln^Si'ib eldmdqxsaai t nadi ibatoaarq il 
Misanms*! adi hi brrBl'griS lo aslana adi lo aonsiBaqqBaT 
aavaa iird bm £ arro§ 8bw noaloqaM g bd7°mns noigmJfaW 
? amit bnoaaa adi iol ,bsd 8aiHA adi aania baaqsla bad aiae\ 
adi moil iddtLdS badoTBin amii iaift si J gniYBd t srm% h&f^m 
gaxififisl isboss liaaii inaaTiq Muoo aehqiaina oK ' .aaaflarj*! 

.nohm donaiU adi o i gaibbidiol aiom 
lo Jnabxaoi*! adi j nslq adi lo ^jjcvbI hi ion a«w giui adT 
D5O13H.0 ipnonfmiallB^G-x adi ei aaiavbfiiaoin aBwliamfoO adi 
iaBtie as ii bhd tfhopun daHBfloiiu^anoO adi larraaai if 
ajB7nqii9di^d,bahcqqnaauina§lo namoH .eayiaamadi Hoqi/ 
.mssaaem iBiijqoqirjj adi e aanairpoIa Lshoififlaa io tmsnz&ul 
ffso aw ft aiBd bial naad avsd aia-roaa lla nadw ? Ttrod aidi iA 
lo aeodi bibb e aBaod ion aniBn xrwoxii a tavoaaib yhoiaoa 
tain adt aaadi io • Bflah"difB3*fidb'.aB M boa loaswmSaoksb .M 
lobaaasdma adi xatM adi e sxi£$B n§isiol lo TaiaMm ad* asw 
u/ome aid oi aoBhoBa b Hal ijafiaiomifloM ab D K ,nobno J ni 
-innaJ br>d BaoiaY lo aaaignoO adi aiolad nava e aai/Ba aidi ni 
baioBd naad bad baahdussiadD ab ,1 bns € 8§niiiia aii baiBix 
".aamaBaxn amaiixa 33 lo inanoqqo adi es eboofgaSI \d 
eii to alooiq adi t ad ^boi inamaiBia a dona 8B griibxwoiaA 
3T6 9iadT pflfim c^iio^iiib y ire Jo doaei adi nidfm oil ypsmsooa 
bflfi «aiiiafnjjaob Ifihifto adi \uj9iia0M* adi lo aamnloa ad^ 
cbflBndi/BaiBdO ab 1^ Io^ko^^vso^ badaildx/q 9di 



6089mpOB 9*rol9i9rfi iaai aW subdue \ddi moiim fcsdgiloq ^ifj 
gfid fiftow 9di '\o 9§b ^1979 fosit € noiaulonoo inBSBalq adi iti 
<689niqcf£d 91ft e Jh€ CHAPTER Uiig 

t? =9D6* aBflUfd 9ift 9§£)9JwOf[i 9lfo bflfl 

Position of France in 1822.— Invasion of 

sisw Piedmont and Naples. 

jfesi iuo won 9(f fliw eeaooiq terfw ^cf jifts moil hoiww 

To speak in 1822 of a Spanish war was to recall the 
previous one, in which above half a million of Frenchmen had 
perished. The object proposed in so perilous an enterprise 
was not a disputed succession : it was to obtain redress for 
no injuries, there was no French interest involved; it was 
to change institutions, in an inverse sense to those of France. 
It presented, then, insuperable difficulties, and involved the 
reappearance of the armies of England in the Peninsula. 
Wellington survived, Napoleon was gone, and but seven 
years had elapsed since the Allies had, for the second time, 
entered Paris, having the first time marched thither from the 
Pyrenees. No enterprise could present itself under features 
more forbidding to the French nation. 

The king was not in favour of the plan ; the President of 
the Council was most adverse to it; the royalist minority deemed 
it insane ; the Constitutionalist majority held it an attack 
upon themselves. No men of genius supported, by their private 
judgment or senatorial eloquence, the unpopular measure. 
At this hour, when all secrets have been laid bare, we can 
scarcely discover a known name not hostile, save those of 
M. de Montmorency and M. de Chateaubriand : of these the first 
was the minister of foreign affairs, the latter the ambassador 
in London. M. de Montmorency fell a sacrifice to his ardour 
in this cause, even before the Congress of Verona had termi- 
nated its sittings, and M. de Chateaubriand had been backed 
by England, as the opponent of " extreme measures. 5 ' 

Astounding as such a statement may be, the proofs of its 
accuracy lie within the reach of any diligent man. There are 
the columns of the ' Moniteur,' the official documents, and 
the published exculpation of M. de Chateaubriand. 



ss 



SPAIN. 



The event lias proved that these apprehensions of Spanish 
resistance were unfounded ; may not, therefore, the pro- 
moters of the war have calculated with greater accuracy the 
chances than the public ? TTe have their most secret com- 
munications before us ; from these I extract the leading 
points, as given by the author of the Invasion. 

He considered the people of Spain intractible, not attached 
to "legitimate principles more than to constitutional ;" he held 
the whole case "to reside in the character of the king:''' he 
was the political disease of Spain ; he was "false, imbecile, 
and treacherous;" the people of Spain were vindictive, 
and the restoration of the absolute king woidd be the 
signal of every excess to which " they were entitled by 
their traditional habits of arrogance." He held the In- 
vasion to be most dangerous, and to place the French armies 
entirely at the mercy of England : he looked on failure as 
" the fall of the Bourbons in France," and the beginning of 
a convulsion "more dangerous than that of 1793." Had he 
looked to prompt and easy success, had he come with a 
scheme of government to introduce, he might have been 
set down as fit for a place in St. Luke's ; but he had no such 
hope or plan. How shall we describe him if not in his own 
words, " It is not he that is fabulous, but the age ?" Let us 
now consider the dispositions of foreign Powers. 

France was then humbled She was admitted to no Con- 
claves : she had just escaped from a project of further partition 
projected by England : she was hated by the despotic Powers 
for her supposed liberalism, and by the Constitutionalists 
for her entrance into the " Holy Alliance." She was then 
linked by no enteinte cordiale with England, but looked upon 
her neighbour as engaged in a national policy to humble 
and weaken her. The Spanish Constitution was considered 
England's work : an eventual occupation of Spain was 
therefore, justly to be considered " a possible war with 
England." Canning was minister. 

As to the Continental Powers, and especially the Holy 
Alliance, it may be supposed that they were not only favour- 



POSITION OF FRANCE IX 1823. 



39 



able but so ardent in the matter, as to make common cause 
with her when repeating across the Pyrenees the recent 
expeditions of Austria across the Alps. The cases, however, 
were widely different. 

In these Interventions, Austria acted in the pursuit of a 
definite policy on a field abandoned to her at the Congress of 
Vienna ; there was no danger of a war thence arising between 
her and England. Prussia did not apprehend that she would 
extend her power, or change in a dangerous manner her own 
character, but knew full well that she would be only weakened. 
France alone could have taken umbrage at Austrian Inter- 
vention in Italy: it was against her that the blow was aimed, 
and she was prostrate. The Holy Alliance had, moreover, 
denounced these Revolutions from the beginning. No danger 
for the person of the king could arise from the hostile 
operation. 

The Invasion of Spain by France presents the counterpart 
in all respects of this picture ; there the Revolution had been 
recognised, the powers had their ambassadors at Madrid — the 
Russian ambassador, who was also a Spanish general (Pozzo 
di Borgo), had taken part in the appointment of the ministry. 
The Invasion was considered not an easy suppression of 
doctrines, but as a great war with incalculable consequences. 
Austria and Russia reduced the question to this dilemma, 
" either France will be -victorious, or she will be beaten :" in 
the first case she will regain her preponderance — in the second 
Revolution its strength. 

Where then was the support of the promoters of the project 
against their King, their Colleagues, the Chamber, the Charter, 
the Parties, in a word — France '? Let us open the " Congress 
of Yerona" — I mean the volume. 



yd bsffioj>T9 ff99d T9V9wod bsi aiSfioieahninoO docrefl 9iT 

CHAPTER VI. 

Jon ob 6w t %\$ \%m^ w» «ts&^% toofo 83 t IiofliroO adi 

Congress of Verona. 

1U0 880IDJ3 gqOOXt JToiSTOl lo 9§B83Bq 8ltt sd Ol 919 W Jltf89I 

The Conference at Verona was attended, not like that of 
Laybach, by the members of the Holy Alliance only, but also 
by the Representatives of other States and of England, who 
had protested against such meetings, declaring that she 
"never contemplated that the alliance of the great Powers 
was to be converted into a conclave for the government 
of independent states. 55 The Conference ended without any 
decision : no joint declaration of principles was published, and 
no concerted action of any description resolved on. 

There were five major points discussed, which I place 
according to their order of discussion and supposed im- 
portance : 

1st. The Slave Trade. 

2d. Suppression of piracy in America and the Spanish 
Colonies. 

3d. The differences between Russia and the Porte. 
4th. The affairs of Italy. 
5th. The Revolution in Spain. 

These subjects were treated severally by the Powers di- 
rectly interested. The smaller States were excluded from the 
discussion on the affairs of the Porte, and Prance, though 
not excluded, was allowed no consultative voice ; from those 
of Italy, she was entirely excluded. Those on which she was 
called to treat were the Slave Trade, the Spanish Colonies, and 
Spain. The first two were introduced by the English Govern- 
ment ; the role of France was limited to declining to 
accede to the English proposals. Prance herself intro- 
duced Spain in the form of a question as to how far the 
Powers would lend to her their sanction or co-operation in 
eventual circumstances, such as, for instance, a declaration 
of war by Spain. 



COXGEESS OF VEEOXA. 



41 



The French Commissioners had however been enjoined by 
their instructions "to avoid presenting themselves to the Congress 
as reporting on Spanish affairs,'' 5 because, says the President of 
the Council, " should Spain declare tear against us, we do not 
require succours, and we could not even admit of them, if the 
result were to be the passage of foreign troops across our 
territory." He proceeds to show the impossibility of con- 
quering Spain, or of maintaining there an army of occupation. 

These instructions were framed to meet and counteract 
supposed warlike dispositions on the part of the Congress, 
which might place France in the alternative of defending the 
Spanish Eevolution against Europe, or of attacking it on 
behalf of Europe. 

The French Plenipotentiary, in the teeth of these specific 
orders, did, as we have seen, make himself the reporter on 
Spanish affairs, and, in so doing, applied the words of 
M. Yillele, in reference to a defensive war against Spain to 
an Intervention in Spain, and so identified the proposed 
measure with those operations against Piedmont and Xaples, 
which the President of the Council had energetically repudiated. 
In his communication to the Congress of the 20th October, 
he says : — 

" Besides, the Spanish Government may suddenly determine 
upon a formal aggression. France must therefore foresee as 
possible, and perhaps even as probable, a war with Spain. 
By the nature of things, and in the sentiments of moderation 
by which she seeks to regulate her conduct, she must consider 
this war as strictly defensive. Full of confidence in the 
justice of the cause she will have to defend, and honouring 
herself with having to preserve Europe from the revolutionary 
scourge, &c. 55 He then proceeds to indicate a middle course 
as possible between war and peace,— that of breaking off 
diplomatic intercourse; and his proposal is, that the other 
Courts shall also withdraw their ! Eepresentatives. This step, 
not in his instructions, was that best calculated to exasperate 
Spain, and to identify France with the Holy Alliance. He 
himself contemplates this result. " This measure, which 



4.2 



SPAIN. 



would have so much the more effect as it would be consum- 
mated by a perfect concord between the high powers, might 
bring grave consequences. It would probably exasperate 
the men who at present govern Spain, but they alone would 
have to incur the responsibility." He then proceeds to put, 
three questions : 

1st. If the Allies will break diplomatically with Spain 
when Trance does ? 

2d. In case of war, what moral support could be lent to 
France ? 

3d. What material succours could be afforded in case she 

demanded it ?" 

Thus introduced, the Conference examined the cases of 
war, as follows : 

1st. That of an attack on the French territory. 

2d. The dethronement of the kin°*, or legal proceedings 
against his person or his family. 

3d. A formal act of the Spanish Government to change 
the legitimate succession. 

Here were added two new cases not contemplated in the 
French instructions, and upon the whole collectively the 
French Plenipotentiary demanded a decision. Prussia and 
Austria answered, " that if the conduct (the subsequent con- 
duct) of the Spanish Government in respect to France or her 
ambassador at Madrid was such as to force the latter to break 
off diplomatic connection/' they would then do the same. 
"That if, in despite of the care the French Government takes 
to prevent a war with Spain, that war came to break out" 
(by Spain's act), they would yield to her their moral support. 
" That if the events or the consequences of a war made 
France feel the necessity for more active succour, they 
would consent to that kind of succour in so far as the neces- 
sities of their position might leave them the faculty of so 
doing." 

England protested against the whole proceeding, and 
declared that the interference of foreign Powers was in 
every case calculated to exasperate and not to allay faction ; 



CONGRESS 01 YEROXA. 



43 



that this sentiment was stronger in Spain than in any other 
country, and that the very existence of such communications 
tended to put in danger those august persons for whose 
security they were undertaken. 

"Russia alone," says M. de Chateaubriand, "answered 
energetically, yes, to all the proposals of France. She is 
ready to withdraw her ambassador — she is ready to give to 
France, in even 7 case, every moral and material support with- 
out restriction and without condition." 

Proposals of France ! They were at the time unhiotcn to 
the French Cabinet. The proposals assented to by Russia 
were her own. But let us hear her view of the case : — 

Ci Anarchy reduced to principle, and power become the price 
of insolence to the throne and to religion — disorder delivering 
up to a destructive scourge entire populations — the almost 
consummated loss of the rich possessions in the new world — 
the public fortune dissipated — the most subversive doctrines 
openly preached : some faithful subjects array themselves for 
the defence of their Sovereign, and this Sovereign forced to 
proscribe them. Abroad, the sad spectacle which is presented 
in the countries which the artizans of the troubles of Europe 
had destined to be the prey of Revolution. Last year, the 
two Sicilies on fire, and the Allied Powers constrained to 
place there legitimate power under the edges of their arms. 
Piedmont convulsed, and endeavouring to propagate revolt 
in the north of Italy, and provoking the same Intervention 
and the same assistance. Assuredly it is impossible that 
such a state of things should not excite the regrets and the 
inquiries of all the European powers" 

"This frank note," says the French Plenipotentiary, the 
historian of the Congress, " dissipated all fears relative to 
the war with Spain." The fears of the French Government 
were lest the war should be rendered inevitable— those of 
the French Plenipotentiary lest it should not be made. 

The next step was to propose the withdrawal from Madrid 
of the Representatives of the other powers before that of France. 
This was to be a concerted measure, taken by the Allies 



SPAIN. 



who had promised only to support and follow Prance when 
attacked. This carried, it is next proposed to send separate 
Notes justifying the rupture. As France was not yet to come 
to her rupture, the composition of these Notes was for Austria 
and Prussia a rather difficult enterprise : the first harps on 
Piedmont, the second is full of apprehension for war * Eussia, 
however, hits the blot, and buries the weapon to the hilt. 

"Prance has seen herself compelled to confide to an army 
the care of her frontier, and perhaps she will have equally to 
confide to it the care of causing provocations to cease of which 
she is the object." 

Those whose judgments await results may conceive that 
the cautious and guarded terms of the early communications 
of Austria and Prussia were a disguise, and that their real 
dispositions were revealed in their subsequent acts. How, 
indeed, could it be possible that in the course of a few days 
they should be changed, on the most important affair of 
Europe, from one settled course to another exactly the 
reverse ? But what portion of this statement is not liable to 
the same objection ? What, for instance, more incompre- 
hensible than that the French Minister should have been 
opposed to the war, and have forbidden his agents to make any 
report on the affairs of Spain ? Those who allege such impro- 
prieties, know not the magic of the human mind, nor the sorcery 
of the powerful spirit over the weak. Eussia had at Verona the 
kings and statesmen of Europe brought within her reach, and 
placed in the very palm of her hand. The balls being together 
on the table, she could make the points off them, and win the 
game without dropping the cue. 

She proposed from France to the Conference what the French 

* "(Test elle qui, par la contagion de ses principes et de ses 
exemples, et par les intrigues de ses principaux artisans, a cree les 
revolutions de Naples et du Piemont." — Austrian note. 

"L'effet inevitable de tant de desordres se fait surtout sentir dans 
1' alteration des rapports entre l'Espagne et la France. L'irritation 
qui en resulte est de nature a donner les plus fortes alarmes pour la 
paix entre les deux royaumes."- — Prussian note. 



CONGRESS OF VERONA. 



45 



Government never projected - y she induced -the Conference to 
reply to the proposal so as to bring consequences which they 
never anticipated. Associating herself to their action, she in- 
terpreted their act in words which, not daring to repudiate 
them, they had to accept as their own. She misled Austria 
and Prussia as to the disposition of the French Ministry 
through the treachery of its agent, and represented to the 
French Ministry their extorted consent as a coercion ! 

The tardy protestation of England, which at the commence- 
ment would have nipped the system in its bud, came then but 
to vex and exasperate M. de Villele, and to furnish Russia 
with the occasion of launching at England an insolent defiance 
in the name of the " Continental Alliance." 

All this may be gathered from the published documents 
but beyond these, we are in possession of still more surprising 
materials. „ * , • « ^rvn™.^ \i pj.™ p^r™ 

To what a pass has diplomatic secrecy reduced the human 
race and understanding, when the phrases of an intriguer 
couched on a sheet of paper can inflict on the world tortures 
and desolation, such as in former times would have required 
the irruption of savage hordes, or the rare and terrible phe- 
nomenon of a conquering genius. The following passage bear 3 
its own comment j — 

"In order to render intelligible the different parts of the 
Congress of Verona, it is now necessary that I should give an 
account of my private correspondence with M. Villele. It will 
be seen that the Verona correspondent (himself), by a natural 
connivance with his own desires, exaggerates the desire of the 
sovereigns for the war, with the exception, as we have already 
said, of the Emperor of Russia. I* sought to fix the deter- 
mination of the President of the Council, for his ideas were 
less fixed than mine, upon an enterprise with which I asso- 
ciated the safety and honour of France, I was not Minister or 
Foreign Affairs, and there was not the least appearance that 

I should soon be called to exercise the functions so worthily 

nobfijmM cSoriB*/! &i eagfiqe^TI M-tas e>iioqqai 89b noiifi^jiB I 

ef woq &&mial& esiiol enfq esl isnnob £ siuton sb de9 sihre9i n9 hsg 
* M. de Chateaubriand always uses the word we. 



m spaix. 

filled by the Duke de Montmorency. But I nattered 
myself that if I could get my plan adopted by Mi Villele, 
that, on my return to London, I should be able to contribute 
to render the execution of it more easy, by standing so well 
with George TV and with Mr. Canning." 

The reader may be curious to see some fragments of this 
correspondence. 

" Verona, 31st Oct. — The despatch of M. de Montmorency 
will cany you to-day nearly the conclusion of the Spanish 
affairs in the sense of your instructions. To-night we hare a 
Conference to consider the means of making known to Europe 
the dispositions of the alliance. Russia is well disposed to- 
wards us (La Russie est aimoJAe pom nous). Austria serves 
us in this question, although she be for the rest all English. 
Prussia follows Austria. The desires of the Powers are strongly 
in favour of a war with Spain. It is for you, my dear friend, 
to see if you ought not to seize this occasion, perhaps unique, 
of replacing Prance in the rank of military powers — of re- 
accrediting tlie icliite cockade in a short war, almost without 
danger, and towards which the opinion of the royalists and the 
army strongly pushes you. All Continental Europe will be 
for you, and England, if she take offence, will not even have 
time to lay hold of a colony. As to the chambers — success 
covers everything. _ To destroy a focus of Jacobinism, to 
establish a Bourbon upon the throne, by the hands of a 
Bourbon, are results to overbalance all secondary considera- 
tions ; and, after all, how are we to get out of our present, 
position ? Are we eternally to keep an army of observation at 
the foot of the Pyrenees ? Can we, without exposing our- 
selves to the hisses and contempt of all parties, send back our 
soldiers some morning to their garrisons." 

" 20th November. — Do not believe, my dear friend, that in 
speaking of the ' advantages of this war/ I do not feel the 
serious consequences it might bring. England softens her- 
self, and appears at this moment less opposed to the interests 
of Continental Europe, but if our fleets were long in activity, 
and if Russian soldiers were put in motion, the double jealousy 



CONGEESS OF VEEOXA. 



47 



of our insular neighbours might be re-awakened. You are 
therefore quite right not to precipitate yourself blindfold 
into hostilities of which it is necessary to calculate all the 
chances, &c. 

" I must tell you, my dear Mend, a thing which, however, 
will not pain you. You are accused here to the man who 
does all (or rather the man to whom everything that is done 
is attributed) of extreme moderation. I have been enveloped 
as your friend in this charge, I have been therefore treated 
coldly, because I was suspected of wishing to look twice 
before precipitating my country into the chances of a war 
that might become European ; and then it happens that I 
alone have remained Constitutional, when no one will hear of 
Constitution. What is to be done ? Take all this in pa- 
tience and in pity ; however, after the departure of M. de 
Montmorency, I will play a nobler part. 

"I perceive already the symptoms of favour to come; 
above all, will I succeed if you write to me, and if it is known 
that I am your man, for whilst finding some fault with your 
prudence there is the highest idea of your capacity. Au 
reste, I must tell you in this long letter, that I write with a 
flowing pen, that Austria and Prussia are by no means ardent 
for the war, and if you should be so disposed, it tcould be very 
easy to cause obstacles to be started on the part of the Cabi- 
nets of Vienna and Berlin. 

" Postscript. — Wliatever be the resolution of the Council 
of tlie Tidier ies, the other Cabinets seem determined to send 
their Notes and withdraw their Agents from Spain.' 3 

" Verona, 28th November. — We are, it appears to me, in 
a most difficult position ; whatever we do here is pleasing 
to no one. Prance acts by constraint (a la main forcee); 
Russia is dissatisfied because we do not go far enough; 
Austria has moved only that she might not come to a rupture 
with Eussia ; Prussia trembles at the least disturbance ; and 
England opposes everything. Whilst we fancied we had 
succeeded in doing something at Verona, the real business 
was managed elsewhere. " We see now the cause of the 



48 



SPAIN. 



violent notes of the Duke of Wellington. * - * * It is there- 
fore not a simple war with Spain, but a possible one with 
England." 

Now let us turn to M. Yillele on the same day, but in 
answer to the previous Postscript he writes : — 

" 28th November.— I see that it is upon us that will roll 
the whole weight of the determination with respect to Spain. 
I have no objection if they give us both the balls; but if it 
is only one we are to have, I am not to be seduced by the 
appearance of so much honour. The whole matter rests on 
the Notes of Russia, Prussia, and Austria, If their contents 
are of a nature to bring a rupture, it is clear that we shall be 
immediately in war, or in a state so like it as not in reality 
to have any choice to make. 

"At the end of the year I shall have twenty-five millions 
in hand, all expenses paid — Why should these unhappy 
external affairs come to trouble such prosperity ?" 

The measures of England having irritated M. Villele, he 
writes, on the 5th of December, a most important letter, in 
which he expatiates on the needlessness of the course in 
which they were engaged, gives expression to his suspicion 
that they were played upon, and of his fears of the ulti- 
mate triumph of the extreme party in Spain, in France, and 
throughout Europe. He recoils, however, from any measure 
which would wear the appearance of concurrence withEngland, 
but is terrified at the idea of separating from the Allies.* He 
therefore implores the French Plenipotentiaries to obtain from 
the Allies that their Ambassadors should not be withdrawn 
from Madrid, and that the ultimate decision should be 
remitted to a Conference at Paris. He concludes his earnest 
and supplicatory letter in these terms : — 

" May it please God, for my country's sake and for 
Europe's, to cause them to desist from a resolution which, 

# On the one side, it would be frightful (affreux) for us, and we 
could not resolve upon such a step, to separate ourselves from the 
Emperor of Russia, — to imitate whom ? the only power whom we 
have reason to mistrust, — England. 



CONGRESS OF VERONA. 49 

with profound conviction, I announce beforehand as about to 
compromise the safety of France herself." 

To the opinion of this statesman I must add a passage 
concurrently written by Mr. Canning :— 

" Leave the Spanish Revolution to burn itself out within its 
own crater. You have nothing to apprehend from the erup- 
tion if you do not open a channel for the lava through the 
Pyrenees." 

M. de Chateaubriand answers from Verona on the night 
of the 20th December: — 

"As soon as I received your letter of the 5th, I had with 
Prince Metternich this morning a conversation of the last im- 
portance. The Emperor of Russia has also granted me an 
audience, and this generous Prince spoke to me for more than 
an hour with an interest for the King and for France truly 
admirable. In two words, the three Powers will not withdraw 
their notes and will despatch them to Madrid, granting us, 
however, a few days to act with them if we be so disposed.' ' 

Here ends the Congress of Verona. 

"It results from this correspondence," says M. de Chateau- 
briand, " that M. Villele and I had each of us a fixed idea : 
I wanted the war, he wanted peace ; and I attributed to all 
the Allies the sentiments of Alexander, and told the President 
of the Council that the strongly pronounced wish of all was 
for the war. M. de Montmorency was also for the war, but he 
had altogether another object, and his opinions were openly 
expressed. 1 clothed my determination under doubts, and 
feared that in revealing too much, I should spoil all." 

It is here necessary to remark that M. de Chateaubriand 
did not share in the more enlightened opinion of the present 
day in respect to Russia, and held her to be neither stupid 
nor weak. In a work in which he avows his entire devotion 
to her chief, he admits her to be most subtle, powerful, and 
ambitious ; he speaks of the Emperor as " the Potentate to 
whom Napoleon had bequeathed Europe" His avowed purpose 
is to restore the military power of France, to make her "a 

3 



50 



SPAIN. 



useful ally to Russia" in the accomplishment of that prophecy. 
He and his colleague received each, as compensation for the 
ingratitude of their country, a pension from the Emperor of 
25,000 francs. But M. de Chateaubriand was a religious 
man, and had published on " The Genius of Christianity. 5 ' 



I cannot resist the temptation of inserting a letter of 
Mr. Canning to M. de Chateaubriand, written after the 
matter was decided, and to the last person in the world on 
whom it was worth while to expend paper and ink. It is 
curious to observe how completely the man of genius, desti- 
tute of the sense of action, and conversant only with ideas 
and words, is at the mercy of the intriguer. 

" London > January 21s£, 1823. 

" I think these changes unfortunate, but still I do not 
despair if you continue to be for peace, and if your just estimate 
of the dangers of war to France does not yield to your belief 
of its facilities, and your anticipation of its glories ; but I 
own some of your topics alarm me more than your reasonings 
tranquillise me upon that point. 

" When I speak of the dangers of war to France, do not 
suppose that I undervalue her resources or power. She is as 
brave and as strong as ever she was before. She is now the 
richest, the most abounding in disposable means, of all the 
states of Europe. Here are all the sinews of war, if there 
be the disposition to employ them. You have a million of 
soldiers, you say, at your call. I doubt it not ; and it is 
double the number, or thereabout, that Napoleon buried in 
Spain. You consider a "premier succes au moins" as 
certain. I dispute it not. I grant you a French army at 
Madrid. But I venture to ask, what then ? If the King of 
Spain and the Cortes are by that time where they infallibly 



COXGEESS OF VERONA. 



51 



will be, in the ' Isla de Leon/ I see plenty of war if you 
once get into it, but I do not see a legitimate beginning to 
it, nor an intelligible object. You would disclaim to get into 
such a war by the side-door of an incidental military incur- 
sion; you would enter in front with the cause of war 
blazoned on your banner. And what is that cause ? Is it to 
be learned from the notes and despatches of four Continental 
Powers? or from M. de Villele's only? Is it vengeance 
for the past, or security for the future ? You disclaim the 
former, no doubt, but how is the latter to be obtained by 
war ? I understand a war of conquest ; I understand a war 
of succession, — a war for the change (on the one hand), or 
the conservation (on the other) of a peculiar dynasty. But 
a war for the modification of a political Constitution, a war 
for the two Chambers, and for the extension of the regal pre- 
rogative — a war for such objects as these I really do not 
understand, nor do I conceive how the operations of it are 
to be directed to such an end. You would not propagate 
La Charte as Mahomed did the Alkoran, or as in the earliest 
part of your Eevolution France did the Eights of Man. Con- 
sider, is there not some forbearance on the part of Spain in 
not throwing these things in your teeth ? Might she not, 
when informed that her change of Constitution had not been 
bloodless, desire that it should be compared with 1789 and 
1792-3 ? Might she not, when accused by Eussia of a 
forcible change of government, remind the Emperor Alexander 
of the events which preceded his own accession, and the 
treaty of Tilsit which made over Spain to Buonaparte? 
Might she not speak to Prussia of promises of free Insti- 
tutions made by a King, and violated ? Might she not accept 
Prince Metternich's appeal to the former union of Spain and 
Austria, and turning to us (if we took part in the lecture) 
say that she was ready, like England in 1688, to preserve 
her laws and liberties by a small change in the reigning 
dynasty, and to place an Austrian Prince with enlarged 
powers upon her throne ? Surely the discussions with which 



52 



SPAIN. 



the war has been prefaced are as hazardous as the war itself. 
Consider before what an audience you plead. How many of 
their passions are against you ! — how few of their sympathies 
are with you ! * * * And do you make war to free such a 
monarch from all restraint ? And do you hope to have man- 
kind with you ?" 

aeadj m eimqo doidw /IriqA noiifinndooiq b imm 

— s abiov? 

Lrxoit tobme&dniA ehi ^niwiSTbdjiw ni ^offfrfl \o ^olK srfT J) 
ids bsliaoQi msi blxei? smrrasT? sdi ted* bsciod ikhheM 



li 10 Ilfiosi sdt 



hd B blTB 



\o YflBin 7T/H e f>£9icr JJ07 sdhoiLitb n£ iudi? sidted isiiauo^ 

CHAPTEE VII. 

Invasion of 1823. 

Ox entering the Spanish territory, the Due D'Angouleme 
issued a proclamation (2d April), which opens in these 
words : — 

" The King of France, in withdrawing his Ambassador from 
Madrid, hoped that the warning would have recalled the 
Spanish Government to more moderate sentiments. Two 
months and a half have passed, and His Majesty has awaited 
in vain to see an order of things established in Spain com- 
patible with the security of its neighbours." 

The Note of the French Government which had preceded 
the recall of the Ambassador contained the following passage : 

" The Government of His Majesty will not hesitate to seek 
guarantees in more efficacious dispositions for the protection 
of the material interests of France, should they continue to be 
compromised, and should she lose the hopes of an ameliora- 
tion, which, with pleasure, she awaits from the sentiments 
which have so long united the Spaniards to the French in a 
sage liberty." 

Such were the hopes in which she awaited the two months 
and a half spent in active preparation for Invasion, in con- 
sequence of a provocation which she had tranquilly endured 
for two years, and which Invasion her King from the throne 
had the year before declared that " malevolence alone" could 
suspect. 

The Due D'Angouleme having with laconic vagueness 
explained the grounds of the Invasion, thus exposes the con- 
duct he is about to pursue :— 

" Spaniards — everything will be done for you and with you. 
— The French are, and only will be your auxiliaries ; — your 



5-1 



SPAIN. 



own flag will alone wave over your cities; — the provinces 
that iny soldiers shall traverse, will be administered in the 
name of Ferdinand, by Spanish authorities \ — we do not 
pretend to impose upon you laws, we only desire to restore 
to you order." 

Three days before the date of the Duke's Proclamation, 
another had appeared, also issuing from the French territory ; 
it contained these words : — 

" Spaniards, to you belong the glory of exterminating 
the Eevolutionary Hydra. 

"The Provisional Junta of Government declares that 
sovereignty resides entirely in the King, and emanates from 
him. 

"Spaniards, your Government declares that it does not 
recognise, and holds as null, all the public and administration 
acts, as well as the measures of a Government established by 
Eebellion, and that consequently it temporarily re-establishes 
things in the state in which they were previous to the 7th 
March, 1820." 

The place from which it was dated, and the concurrent 
transmission of the two Proclamations, prove the connivance. 
At a subsequent period the French Government attempted 
to exculpate itself by its inability to restrain the Party it had 
placed in power, without exposing its troops to the fury of 
a reaction. But of what further violence could it be guilty ? 
The Proclamation of the Duke was not his voluntary act, nor 
one to which he had assented, — it was sent to him only at 
the moment that it was to be published, and with pressing 
orders that the publication should not be delayed an hour.* 

* " The Due d' Angouleme found at Toulouse the members of the 
ex-regency of Urgel. He received them very coldly, and only as 
private persons. He showed attention only to the Baron d'Eroles, 
but whether it was that his opinions had undergone a change, or 
that he had been overreached by some intrigue, it is certain that, 
in direct contradiction with his moderate ideas, a provisional junta 
made its appearance on the 6th of April at Bayonne, composed of 
Eguia, Erol, and G-omez Calderon, and which, without waiting to 
know whence its power came to it, or who it represented, com- 



INVASION OF 1823. 



55 



The only course was the appointment of the Due 
D'Angouleme as Lieutenant- General of the kingdom, until 
the close of the expedition. The political circumstances of 
the country rendered this imperative, and it presented no 
administrative difficulty even of detail, the municipal bodies 
having there the entire management, and standing distinct 
from the Cortes and their system. Whilst the issue remained 
uncertain, there was absolutely nothing for a general govern- 
ment legitimately to do. 

Two savage factions stood in face of each other: how 
could France restore order if not by standing as a moderator 
between them ? To announce that her armies shall advance 
as stalking horses, for the vengeance of a proscribed minority, 
was a device to accumulate obstacles in their van, to surround 
the march with dangers, and to mark their track with the 
desolation of a civil war. To tell the one party that the 
door of vengeance was open, was to shut against the other 
the hope of reconciliation, and to bring upon the army a fate 
similar to that with which it threatened Spain. Had the 
design been executed in the spirit in which it was planned, 
100,000 Frenchmen would have marched to their graves ; 
Spain would have been a chaos of convulsion, of which the 
counterpart would soon have appeared in France herself ; and 
the Russian troops, which, as we learn from M. de Chateau- 
briand, were to be put in motion, would have found their 
concerted destination. 

However, the Spaniards are not a reading people, and 
they had made up their minds upon the matter in a manner 
which Shakspeare has anticipated in the words, " A plague on 
both your houses." The Due d'Augouleme was hailed as a 
liberator ; the French troops were everywhere received with 

menced from that day by declaring null every act since the 7th oi 
March, 1820 ; and that declaration, although calculated seriously to 
injure the cause oi restoration, and to produce the worst effects in 
France, was not the less sanctioned by the proclamation of the 
Prince- Generalissimo at Oyarzun on the 9th of April." — Mar. de 
Mirafiores. 



56 



SPAIN. 



open arms; the Cortes fled without striking a blow; every- 
thing was remitted into the hands of France; everything 
expected from her neutrality, moderation, generosity, and 
wisdom. The accomplishment of those ardent desires for 
the well-being of Spain, of which France was the agent, but 
all Europe the source, was now at hand, and the Spanish 
people, while disarming by its bearing the suspicions of the 
Northern Powers, had given to itself irrefragible titles to the 
sympathies of the French people, and to the gratitude of the 
French Government, by the touching confidence with which 
they had remitted their destinies into her hands. At this 
moment, the field was bare ; no cloud had come over the 
mind of the nation ; the rapidity of events had carried atten- 
tion away from the Junta, and shortness of time had not 
recalled it to their acts. But on the day before entering 
Madrid was issued the Proclamation of Alcovendas, con- 
verting the Junta, with the addition of two imbecile and 
obnoxious names, into a regency. 

It is difficult for us to admit into our minds the value of 
this term. The character of inviolability belongs to a 
Sovereign precisely because of the higher sphere in which he 
moves, whence, himself uninfluenced by zeal of theory or 
lust of profit, he moderates and restrains these passions, 
disturbers of communities. What is it to invest with such a 
quality persons taken from the midst, and in this case already 
rejected from the mass, by failure of their faculties, or ab- 
horrence of their character? To these men are then given 
Ministers to countersign their acts, French armies to execute 
their decrees or guard their persons, and the heir of the 
French Crown to insult, as evidence of their dignity. A 
million of French bayonets are in the rear ready at their 
call, and the moral influence and physical arms of another 
million of Russians, if requisite, " to muzzle the Monster of 
Eevolution, and to establish the Empire of the Laws and 
Order." Such a measure was never planned at Madrid — -such 
a scheme never invented at Paris : its parentage belongs to 
a latitude more fertile in vigorous conceptions. 



INVASION OF 1823. 



57 



It was, of course, requisite, not only that the scheme 
should not come from Paris, but also that it should be beheld 
issuing from Spanish soil. This was still found to be im- 
practicable. Some Institutions did survive the Constitution 
of 1812, and were extant even at Madrid itself: these were 
the two Councils of Castile and of the Indies, which had 
not taken to flight with the Cortes. On them was to be 
imposed by Instructions from Paris (how was Paris so well 
informed?) the duty of engendering the Kegency. They 
positively had the hardihood to declare " that they could 
find no precedent to authorise such a step, either in the laws 
or usages of the Spanish monarchy, or in the histories of the 
Regencies that had been established during minorities or 
interregnums." They do not, however, object to their 
Presidents being members of it when it is established. Upon 
this the French are obliged themselves to father the act, 
and a Decree issues, which, after naming the persons, declares 
the Regency constituted — 

" In the name of His Majesty the King of France, 
my Sovereign and Uncle." 

It is signed Louis Antoine, and countersigned De 
Martignac, the Ambassador of France. 

The Regency speedily makes a declaration of principles, and 
announces (Proclamation of the 4th June) that it will not 
listen to the voice of passion, and "that it well knows how to 
use the power confided to it to prevent persecution and excess." 
But events soon gave the interpretation of these words, and 
as their motives afforded nothing abstruse to public curiosity, 
that curiosity transferred itself to Paris, where the contradic- 
tion between words and deeds was at once interesting and 
enigmatic. The coincidence with the Court of Ferdinand VII, 
during the Conspiracy of the Isla de Leon, was not indeed 
recalled, however deserving of recollection ; but as then, at 
Madrid, everything was referred to a " secret influence," so 
was now everything attributed to an " occult government" at 
Paris. In both cases the public instinct had been true, but 
in neither was the public reason exerted. 

3 § 



53 



SPAIN. 



As to the dispositions of the Due d'Angouleme there could 
he no doubt, and he commanded the army — by that army 
alone could the Eegeiicy exist for an hour : the provinces of 
the East, West, and South, were still nominally under the 
rule of the Cortes. If the Regency played false to its Com- 
mander, it must have done so at its own peril — a peril too 
grave to be incurred, — or by intelligence with Paris. In that 
case the agents of the secret Government would be acting in 
opposition to the responsible Ministry in Prance and the 
Commander of her armies in Spain. Let us look at their 
acts : a couple will suffice. 

Within a week of the Proclamation, a Decree issued for 
arming the ultra faction, under the title of " corps of voluntary 
royalists," a body that soon rivalled the Strelitz of Ivan the 
Terrible, 

On the 27th June a Decree appeared without a parallel, 
even in revolutionary Prance, entitled "For the purification of 
civil servants, 93 by which every person employed for the pre- 
vious three years (it was soon afterwards extended to the 
military also) was subjected to an examination, by a secret 
tribunal, as to whether or not he had done or said anything 
" by which the servants of the King and the good cause may 
have suffered.' 5 There was no method of procedure laid 
down ; every method was good ; all information was available, 
and all proceedings secret. The body thus affected is 
numerous beyond the limits of English conception, and even 
of French calculation : the multitude of clerks is. in fact, the 
master grievance of Spain : there was not one of this body 
not affected to one or other faction, because, in fact, they 
constituted the factious class. But this decree struck not 
alone antagonists ; every one of them from that hour was an 
accused person, without knowledge of the accusation, without 
opportunity of defence. Servility became the bread of the 
public servant, the fear of delation his companion. The vices 
of men, or even their weakness, the jealousies of vicinage, the 
competitions of self-love, were worked into the tissue of civil 
power, transmitted into patriotism, and gratified under the 



INVASION OF 1823. 



59 



form of public zeal. You will find the description of such 
things in the pages of Tacitus, but it was a native Despot who 
enforced them on Eome. Here ten times ten thousand 
prizes were held out to invention, and who shall count the 
solaces for pique ? But in the novelty of circumstances, the 
advantage was not possessed of professional informers, and 
in town and city, in village and hamlet, they were separated 
from the neighbour, the relative, the dependant, and the friend, 
by an uncertain and meandering line. 

But the Due d'Angouleme could not suppress his indigna- 
tion, and he issued a Proclamation, in which he declared him- 
self the arbiter of contending parties, and resolved not to 
allow the triumph of France to become the triumph of faction, 
The French Minister is furious ; he instantly writes to the 
Ambassador, whom he had ordered to be " King of Spain,'* 
to nullify by every means the Proclamation of the Prince : 
bis words are — arrtortir le coup. The Prince had to submit 
to the humiliation of an explanation, which was, in fact, a 
retractation. 

Did the French Minister really believe that a republican 
reaction and the destruction of the French woidd have been 
the consequence of this step ? By no means. In his private 
communications now published he describes it as having 
produced the "best effects, even amongst the corps of 
royalists, who complain that by punishing the constitutional 
troops who had laid down their arms, new enemies are con- 
stantly raised to them. 5 ? This is no after-thought ; it is 
written nine days after the Decree, namely, on the 17th of 
August. Again, ten days later he writes to the Ambassador 
at Madrid, who had been sending him all the absurd gossip 
of the Puerto, del Sole, as follows :— 

"You have been listening to the cries of the Spanish 
royalists and to the complaints of diplomatic agents, enemies 
of France. You have not seen, as I have here, the answers 
of the Commandants of the Fortresses, who all declare that 
they are desirous of surrendering themselves, but are pre- 
vented, because in laying down their arms they would be 



00 



SPAIN. 



imprisoned and massacred by the orders of the Regency-. Toil 
have not seen the reports of the cruelties of Merino and the 
other royalist chiefs, and, consequently, yon have not been in 
a state to judge of the effect." 

Can it be believed that the sentence immediately following 
is this : " Cite seule ordonance a tout gate? " 

The only act of the Prince was that Proclamation : it 
was directed against the only danger that France had to fear— 
the only business in which the Kegency was engaged. 

I subjoin a Spanish statement of the case, from the intro- 
duction to the Marquis of Miraflore's valuable collection of 
State Papers :— 

t£ In six short weeks this change has been effected, so 
powerful were the means and so instant the agents, the Due 
d'Angouleme having, in the mean time, remained a passive 
spectator, restrained by that same occult influence which 
had already not only coerced his judgment, but compromised 
him in its own measures. His patience was at last exhausted, 
and he ftdminated against the regency, on the 8th August* 
the Decree of Andujar, On this a howl arose from the clubs 
and journalists of Madrid, and, far more important, a whisper 
came to him from Paris. He had dared to take at length 
a step, according to his pledge, to arrest excesses and 
vengeances. He had dared to take measures for the safety of 
his army, thereby compromised. He had dared to endeavour 
to keep faith with those who had laid down their arms by 
Compact with France, and on the condition of an Amnesty, 
and he was consequently bearded to the face by the regency 
and its minions, threatened with the resistance of the armies 
of Spain, in case he attempted to withdraw from their lusts 
the victims of their vengeance. He was told by the rabble of 
the streets of Madrid that he had attacked Spanish indepen- 
dence, and it was notified to him from Paris that ' vengeance 
was a customary habit of the Spanish nation? that he had 
exceeded the powers with which he was invested, mistaking 
the views of the King's government ; that his act would 
seriously compromise it in face of the Northern Powers." 



INVASION OF 1S23. 



The easy march of the French, so contrary to all expecta- 
tion, brought to the clearest demonstration two truths. 
The first, that the party of the Cortes had no root : the 
second, that the Royalist party had, if possible, still less, for 
it had been expelled by that very Government which vanished 
before the French. The Spaniards are the proudest of people, 
and the ablest to resist a foe ; but France was their 
friend, or they expected her to be so. They looked to being 
rescued by her out of the hands of 2 00,0 OCT brawling 
Philistines, who had got hold of them as a Dragoman does 
o l? a traveller, or an Ambassador. 

The grave and important part of the matter is, however, 
the insight it affords into the causes of the present condition 
of Europe, and into the working of its governing system. 
The Minister of one power here appears acting for another, 
who is kept out of view. To serve this foreign master, 
he had accepted every consequence, and employed every 
means, even to the last. What the urgency was that impelled 
him, may be estimated from the obstacles against which, 
apparently unaided, he had to contend — the aversion of 
his colleagues, the exasperation of England, the opposition 
and disgust of the agent whom he employed, — no less a person 
than the heir to the French Crown, in face of the anticipated 
contingency of a general triumph of Eevolution, and a Musco- 
vite occupation of France. The path was too intricate to 
have been hit by chance, — the difficulties too great to have 
been conquered by accident, — the consequences too appalling 
not to have been avoided. — the results too evident not to have 
been foreseen. 

That Minister was no longer M, de Yiilele, but 31. de 
Chateaubriand, suddenly transferred to the Foreign Office at 
Paris, and dismissed so soon as the Spanish operation wa9 
completed. 



TTA3HT $2TM(11'J$ 
girfa vf-irf-io'J mocf bai.\ii(tm riadt Mdu no jToot 9ifJ Iiiova 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Quadruple Treaty. 

The Decade does not elapse without a new convulsion ; 
Trench troops are again crossing the Bidassoa, not as foes 
but friends, and this time, according to the original scheme 
of Chateaubriand, wearing the Spanish cockade, But in the 
meantime the colours had changed. It is no longer in- 
violable right to succession that had to be maintained, — it is 
no longer to support a King against a Constitution, but to 
maintain a Queen set up by one. Strange reflections might 
be suggested by such events to the inhabitants of the other 
planets, but in this earth they are not extraordinary. England, 
who was so decidedly convinced in 1823 of the guilt and 
folly of interference in the affairs of neighbours, is now en- 
gaged with France in this same scheme, and, indeed, has 
seduced her into it. This is a matter which admits of no 
discussion ; if not seen at a glance it cannot be seen at all. 

Now what had we to expect ? Time had passed his hand 
over the wounds of former strife, and covered even the cica- 
trices : mutual jealousies had ceased between England and 
France ; they admitted community of political interests, and 
a new bond had arisen between them, — that of similarity of 
opinions in regard to government, and of Institutions. Was 
it possible then to conceive that both should concur, or 
that even one should undertake, any foreign operation not 
unmistakeably just, profitable and necessary ; or that the 
freedom of the people should suffer any measure to be under- 
taken, except after the fullest exposition and the freest 
consent ? 

This union of the nations was not merely one of sympathy, 
it also involved the profoimdest political objects ; it was 
at once an enjoyment and a security. It must have been 
their first care to preserve these blessings, and therefore to 



QUADEUPLE TEE ATT. 



63 



avoid the rock on which their amity had been formerly ship- 
wrecked. That reck was Interference. Nothing could occur 
directly between them to impair their good-will, and of all 
foreign waters of which they had to steer clear, the chief 
were those of Spain. In the East the positive encroachments 
of a third Power might excuse in this respect misjudg- 
nients, and even rectify the effects of errors ; but in the 
Peninsula there was no safety-valve, there was no lightning 
conductor ; and so sure as either moved, and so doubly sure 
when both combined, was the great alliance of the West 
ruptured. 

I speak not here of the general sense of a nation unapplied 
to a particular case; I speak not of an abstract sense of 
right, unadopted as a specific conclusion, by influential states- 
men. Intervention as a Principle had been judged — Spain 
as a field had been excluded. Not to multiply quotations, 
I will refer for England to the declaration of the then 
Minister for Foreign Affairs, that the fC Principle of Non- 
intervention was sound, and ought to be held sacred and 
for France to that of the Duke de Broglie, that " the Govern- 
ment when sought to pursue a policy of influence (he referred 
to Spain) played the part of a dupe, and prepared for itself a 
harvest of difficulties." Both declarations were received in 
the respective Senates without a dissentient whisper, and 
with every sign that men can give of satisfaction. 

ALy first knowledge of this transaction, although a year 
subsequent to the signature of the Treaty, was derived from 
the King of England himself.* "When pointing out the 
absence of all action on our part in face of Eussia's activity 

* I have no hesitation in mentioning the circumstance, as it was 
settled with his best friend, Sir Herbert Taylor, that the whole of 
the transactions in which the King had taken part, in reference to the 
East, should be made public ; and shortly before his death there was 
transmitted to me a mass of letters for that purpose, completing the 
series with those already in my possession. The execution of this 
plan has been delayed, partly in delicacy to certain individuals still 
alive, partly from the indifference prevailing in regard to such 
matters. 



64 



SPAIN. [ SXIAUP 



everywhere, his Majesty replied, " There is something now 
preparing which will be a heavy blow to her." I remained 
silent and stupified, apprehending some new Treaty like that 
of the 6th of July. After a pause, he went on to say, " We 
are going to hit her in Spain." "Into what hole have you 
fallen!" The exclamation escaped me. Out of this con- 
versation arose an article, afterwards published in the first 
number of the ' British and Foreign Eeview,' pointing out 
the necessary consequence of this Intervention, to be that 
rupture of the alliance between England and France which it 
afterwards produced, and further indicating Eussia as the 
only possible source whence the idea could have come. 

It may appear at first sight unwarrantable to place on the 
same line the diplomatic parchment of 1834, and the warlike 
sword of 1823. But in truth the pen was the weightier 
instrument of the two; the object and effect were in both 
cases the same. The restoring of an expelled Faction, and the 
re-invigorating of a struggle on the point of cessation, equally 
prolonged confusion. Though an Army was employed in the 
one case, and a Treaty in the other, that Treaty was an alliance 
and an engagement; it involved the employment of the re- 
sources of the Allies. By it England and France concurred 
to effect what, in 1823, France undertook to do alone, in 
spite of England. If corresponding results did not follow, 
it was not that power was wanting. Mercenaries and 
auxiliaries, supplies and arms,* were indeed furnished, but 
they were administered with care and in moderate doses. 

The Invasion had been prompted by no French interest, 
and had originated in no decision of the French Government : 
yet for the transaction there was an explanation, and it 
was accepted at the time. Whatever use a Cabinet placed 
beyond the circle of Europe's habits and principles might 
make of Eevolution, or of the fear of it, still it was not 
the less true that such fears did exist, and that they 
were very real and pressing. It having been stated (and 

# A quarter of a million stand were sent, and scattered so as to 
arm both parties. 



QUADRUPLE TREATY. 



believed) by M. Villele, that France had sent an army 
to the Tagus to avoid having to send one to the Rhine, 
the value of the reason remained indeed open to dis- 
cussion, but the fact was unquestionable. For the Treaty 
of 1834, no such pretext as this is to be found. The Go- 
vernment of Madrid was endeavouring to put down an 
insurrection of a fortieth part of the population, inhabiting 
provinces not integral parts of the kingdom, but an annexed 
domain. They had taken up arms, as they possessed by Treaty 
the right of doing, in consequence of the infringement of their 
laws. There was here nothing to alarm any foreign Govern- 
ment or faction ; there was indeed no association possible 
between the parties in Spain and the opinions of Europe, 
unless by changing the parts. Nothing could be more 
republican than the followers of Don Carlos, nothing more 
tyrannical than the Constitutionalists of Madrid. 

Supposing that any neighbouring and benevolent Govern- 
ment had desired to put an end to these troubles, nothing 
was easier. The Madrid exchequer was empty, save of de- 
bentures ; the arsenal was exhausted, except of the swords 
of Roland and the Cid, not available on the occasion ; their 
armies were destitute when not defeated; there was no heart to 
their cause ; the insurgents paraded the Peninsula, and once 
might have entered Madrid. A friendly adviser would have 
had every weapon on his side ; indeed, they could not get on 
without aid, and the question was opened by their requesting 
it. They obtained it. Those who enabled them to go on 
could not have wished them to desist, and, it is to be inferred, 
bad prompted them to begin. This is just what had hap- 
pened before : the only difference is, that now the " occult 
Government" is now in London. 

The only way to deal with the case is to consider what in 
a bona fide transaction must have been the reply of the 
British Cabinet to this demand for aid from that of Madrid. 

" The embarrassments experienced, and the dangers appre- 
hended by the Cabinet of Madrid," it must have said, ".are the 



consequences of its own acts in violating the rights of domains 
of the Crown secured by Treaty. No just Government, and 
no enlightened people, can look with favour upon such pro- 
ceedings, and least of all the people and the Government of 
Great Britain. 

" The Government of Great Britain cannot accept, as 
relevant to the matter, the arguments into which that of 
Madrid has been pleased to enter. That Government may 
be perfectly in the right respecting the value of a representa- 
tive form of Government, and the inhabitants of Biscay may 
be wholly in the wrong in rejecting the share in the general 
representation that is offered them ; it may equally be true 
that the usages and privileges of these provinces are not 
in accordance with the spirit of this age, but neither were 
they in accordance with that of Charles V, Philip II, or 
Philip Y, as estimated at Madrid. 

" This appeal to the Government of His Majesty is more- 
over singularly timed. The present Administration accepted 
office for the purpose, amongst others of a similar nature, of 
carrying into effect the maxims of free trade, long professed 
by the liberal party. This Administration is actually engaged 
in restoring municipal freedom to the boroughs of England. 
Both principles appear to be expressed and contained in the 
form of rights in the ancient Spanish word 'Fuero,' which 
the Biscayans are actually in arms to defend, and the troops 
of Her Catholic Majesty engaged in putting down. The aid 
of the English Government is thus sought for the purpose of 
extinguishing in Biscay the very system which, by seeking 
to establish at home, it evinces its desire to see extended to 
the rest of Spain. 

" England is a commercial nation; her chief external object 
is to break down the barriers that oppose the free circulation 
of trade. The grounds of her recent differences with Spain 
had been the system of commercial restriction which the 
influence of England has been exerted to remove, as an 
injury to her own trade, and as also a drawback to the pros- 
perity of Spain ; and you expect England's aid in extending 



QUADRUPLE TREATY. 07 



Custom House lines to provinces free hitherto by immemorial 
usage and by solemn Treaty ! These liberties of the subjects 
of Her Catholic Majesty become thus rights of His Majesty's 
subjects, and England can no more suffer them to be invaded 
by the Crown of Spain than it could by the Crown of France. 

" If the objects sought by the Spanish Government were as 
legitimate as they are illegitimate ; if they were as conducive 
to its repose as they are the reverse ; if they were as con- 
genial as they are repugnant to the sympathies of the British 
nation and its present Government ; if they were beneficial as 
they are injurious to British interests and rights — still would 
it be impossible for the British Government to take any 
part in differences between the Crown of Spain and its subjects. 
England has no ground of war with the Basque Provinces if 
their belligerent rights be recognised 3 and if not, what the 
Spanish Government requires would be legal only after a 
Declaration of war against the Crown of Spain itself. 

" But that Intervention which, in every case, would be a 
crime, would further, in that of Spain, be a folly, and nothing 
would more prejudice the parties in whose favour Intervention 
was exercised, than that Intervention itself." 

These latter sentences are not hypothetical, they are the 
words of the Duke of Wellington addressed to the Allied 
Sovereigns at Verona. 

The first question is : why did the English Government not 
adopt this, the natural course? We are left without any 
answer. The second is : why did it select that which it 
followed ? It gained nothing by the course it did adopt, and 
it could gain nothing ; it lost much, and that loss could not 
but have been anticipated: it sacrificed lives and money; 
but it acquired no influence in Spain : it failed to obtain a 
commercial Treaty, and the Colony of Gibraltar, up to this 
period admitted to the coasting trade of the Peninsula, was 
excluded. But the signal loss incurred was that of the good- 
will of France : dragged by England into mediation, and then 



68 



SPAIN. 



alarmed at the un scrupulous measures proposed, though not 
consigned in the Treaty, Louis Philippe turned for support to 
the Northern Alliance, called into existence by the " Constitu- 
tional League of the West." 

Where then are we to look for the origin of the Quadruple 
Treaty, save in that Cabinet which alone has profited by it ? 
the same which concerted the Conspiracy of the Isla de Leon, 
and managed the Conference of Yerona. 

The reader may, perhaps, be surprised to find no mention 
of Don Carlos . The reason is, that he had nothing to do with 
the transaction. The Insurrection was not raised by him ; it 
merely availed itself of him. In any other portion of the 
Peninsula, the title of the Prince might be a good ground 
for Insurrection, only it was not used as such : in the Basque 
Provinces it could be none. The " Lord of Biscay" is the 
de facto king of Spain, fulfilling, of course, the conditions 
attached to the lordship. There alone the question of 
kingly title could not be entertained, and there only could 
be entertained that of provincial right. The question of 
succession, as regards the remaining provinces, was wholly 
distinct from that form of Government, The Constitution 
had been established under Ferdinand. However, consti- 
tution and succession, fueros and legitimacy were so mixed 
together, that the whole field was covered with a mist, 
which changed to a mirage, and presented to the eyes of 
Europe the reflection of its own lanes and alleys ;* but the 
illusion was for the vulgar only. Those who directed affairs 
knew in 1834, as well as in 1828, that "neither party had 
any roots." The attempted subversion of the Basque Pro- 

* I had at Bayonne a discussion with the chiefs of the Insurrec- 
tion, in presence of some of their supporters. The chiefs had assumed 
the false ground of hereditary right, not only in consequence of the 
contaminating contact with Europeans, but also in the hope of 
ribbons and decorations. On coming away, one of the members 
of the municipality of Bilboa, who before had his mind closed to all 
argument by respect for his chiefs, said to me, "I now see that we 
have been rattled like dice, and sheared like sheep !" 



QUADRUPLE TEEATY. 69 



ivnces was the sole cause of the disturbance, as afterwards 
shown when they sent off Don Carlos, nor would lay down 
their arms till the Convention of Bergara recognised the fueros. 

The complicity of M. de Chateaubriand with the Eussian 
Cabinet is established by direct evidence, furnished by him- 
self : he was but a short time in office. He had the manage- 
ment of no other important matter, and but for the documents, 
which he has himself made public, it would have been difficult 
to prove the source of the expedition, and impossible to 
establish his guilt. 

The Quadruple Treaty was the work of a man of another 
mould, capable of no inadvertence, who never speaks save 
on compulsion, and then only in reference to the occasion 
and the prejudices of his hearers. All that it was ever requisite 
for him to say in Parliament, limited itself to " Don Carlos," 
and " Constitution :" for the time he rendered himself 
perfectly secure by the affectation of a savage hatred against 
the one,* and of a sentimental affection for the other ; but the 
organs of the Government could not be so reserved, and by 
them, especially the Morning Chronicle, the Treaty was attri- 
buted to Talleyrand. f In the shifting grounds assumed at 
various times, this credit was, when the Treaty had become 
popular, withdrawn, and it was then revealed to the nation 
that England had the merit of having produced the statesman 
who had engendered this vast and " truly British plan." 
When at another time it fell into disrepute as having 
estranged Erance, then it was boldly charged by the organ of 
the Foreign Office on M. Thiers. It is perfectly true that 
M. Thiers exerted himself to extort the consent of Louis 
Philippe to the measures proposed by the English minister, 
and for my part I was led into the belief, not of Thiers'^ 

*. In the rapidity of incidents, the reader may have forgotten the 
0;*der sent out to Spain, to refuse access to Don Carlos on hoard of 
any English vessel, even if flying for his life. 

f Talleyrand's assent was conveyed in a note in these terms, and 
these alone : 

" Puis que vous le voulez, soit" 



SPAIN. 



suggestion of the measure, but of his zealous concurrence in 
it; however, during that Minister's recent visit to Spain, 
I had the opportunity of ascertaining the truth. When 
charged with his concurrence on this occasion, as having 
produced all the subsequent dangers of Europe, he answered, 
" Good God ! I had no love of the Treaty, but I yielded to it 
as a choice of evils ; the English alliance was everything to 
me, and it was to be had only on this condition. I did not 
know why Lord Palmerston was so bitter about it, but this 
I did know, that he was the inevitable man." 

Finally, the Morning Chronicle treats us with a cabinet 
picture of the transaction, in which with the laborious 
accuracy of a Teniers, the various groups are exhibited, some 
in the market-place, some looking out at the window, some 
entering at the door. It is varnished and framed to hang 
up as a pendant to that other picture by the pencil of 
Canning of the expedition to Portugal, dear to all lovers of 
art. 

"On Friday the news was received; on Saturday the 
Cabinet was called together, &e." 

" On Thursday, the application from the Spanish Minister 
was received ; on Friday the Council sat ; on Saturday, the 
adhesion of the Minister of Portugal was obtained; on 
Sunday the French Ambassador was applied to, &c." 

But if the Minister could thus shuffle off the Parliament 
and the public, by what means could he circumvent his 
colleagues ? If I had merely the testimony of William IV, 
now dead, it might be a very dangerous assertion to make 
that he had brought a body of English gentlemen to concui 
with him in this measure, — those gentlemen comprising 
the most distinguished members of the party who had sent 
Mr. Adair to St. Petersburg^, and the chief of them being 
Lord Grey himself, compromised in that very act, — on the 
grounds of its being a blow against Eussia. But in an 
inadvertent moment he has himself revealed the fact in 
an article in the Morning Chronicle, which, of all his contri- 
butions to the press, is the only one which has been brought 



QUADRUPLE TREATY. 



home to him, and that not by me, but by another journalist, 
and on grounds wholly irrespective of the cause of my present 
reference. Meeting a charge which at the time had produced 
some sensation, he writes in the Morning Chronicle of the 
16th of January, 1844. 

" The originator and signer of the Quadruple Treaty which 
withdreio Spain from Russian influence ; the statesman who 
embarked with such frankness and boldness in the Consti- 
tutional League of the West ; and who, on the Indus and the 
Danube, the Persian Gulf and the Dardanelles, made the 
boldest stand of any European politician against the 
encroachments of Eussia in Europe and in Asia — he, * * * 
Eussian in Soul !" 

I might here ask, what had he to do with overthrowing 
Russia, who, in regard to the East, had declared himself 
' satisfied with her declarations and conduct who, in regard 
to Poland, had declared the rights of the Emperor to be 
"undeniable;" who, in regard to France, had broken the 
English Alliance ? But we are past inferential conclu- 
sions ; here is a fact which is direct and incontrovertible ; if 
the object in Spain was to oppose Eussia, why was it kept 
secret? If opposition to Eussia was intended, why was 
Spain selected as the field ? What are the results ? 

When tracing the plot of the Congress of Verona, that 
which I had to state every Englishman could take in at a 
glance, but no Frenchman admit, or conceive. What I have 
said of the Quadruple Treaty will be equally plain to the 
Frenchman and obscure to the Englishman. The Spaniard 
will have no difficulty in apprehending the one transaction 
and the other, 

rrec room lo isido sdi bm tdmuctaio&M j% * Trrh/ -rT/T 



CHAPTEB IX. 
Future Marriages. 

As some slight compensation and atonement for the evils 
inflicted on Spain by my country, the limits of which diplo- 
matically include Europe, and Muscovy to its furthest Calmuck 
bounds ; and at the same time as a warning against the evils 
which she is again about to inflict, Ihave presented to Spaniards 
this picture of the genius of Western systems, and of the 
men of modern genius. From it they may collect that the 
highest intelligence on earth has deeply pondered the means 
of decomposing their country ; that by its " occult" command 
over the Western Pentecraty, glittering with the tinsel of a 
Yillele and a Canning, a Wellington and a Mettemich, and 
alas, too, of a Talleyrand, — it has converted Spain into a 
Pandora's box for Europe. 

Can any reasonable Spaniard now doubt that a makriage 
can serve Eussia as well as a Constitution, or a Succession ? 
Let your proverbial gallantry, if not your political foresight, 
at least forbid, that ladies and their affections shall be, because 
seated on or near your Throne, converted into cards and dice 
in a game of perfidy and fraud. To prevent this is the 
easiest of things; settle the matter at home; allow no 
diplomatist to put his hand in ; Fortune offers a solution 
without doing violence to Nature. You have two marriage- 
able princes. 



73 



POSTSCEIPT. 

May, 1853. 

The apprehensions which induced me to draw up the fore- 
going paper have been verified to the extent of nearly 
producing a war between England and France. Out of the 
"Spanish Marriages" came the confiscation of Cracow, and, 
within a short time, the fall of Louis Philippe and the revo- 
lution of 1848, on which the Cossacks entered Hungary. 
To that field I now pass on. 

It is a fact here deserving of record, that the mutual 
exasperation of the two countries, in reference to the Spanish 
marriages, bore upon the Treaty of Utrecht, which the English 
Minister asserted had been violated by the union of a son of 
Louis Philippe and a Spanish princess. This Treaty, as that 
Minister had himself, on a previous occasion, stated in Parlia- 
ment, had ceased to exist, having lapsed by war, and not 
having been restored- at a subsequent peace. Had the author 
of the 'History of Civilisation' been a little earlier* ac- 
quainted with this fact, there could have been no quarrel in 
1847, and no revolutions in 1848. 

* A note was sent to the French Embassy in London, inquiring 
in what article in the Treaties of Luneville, Amiens, or Vienna, the 
Treaty of Utreclit had been restored. It arrived two hours after 
the note of M. Guizot, taking ground upon the Treaty, had bten 
transmitted. 



PART II. 

HUNGARY. 



CHAPTEK L 
Political Value of Hungary. 

Canning electrified the year 1826 by a quotation from the 
iEneid, "Celsa sedet iEolus arce," &c. It was not that it was 
charmed by a "calida junctura" in iEolus and England, but in 
Opinion and wind. For war. Ambition, it was perceived, was 
no longer required ; it could be engendered by thoughts alone ; 
hurricanes to overwhelm Empires, and tempests to subvert 
Thrones, could now be evolved from tropes and metaphors. 

It took, however, two and twenty years for the poetic pro- 
position to become historical, which it did in 1848, when 
the Continental Governments were blown up, with the single 
exception of the country (Spain) whence had been derived the 
explosive matter. The man, in the Eastern tale, who let the 
genius out of the bottle was only alarmed at his own work ; 
but the nations of Europe, when they had ruptured their 
bags, were confounded at themselves : after a wild dance over 
hill and dale, they hurried back again to shut themselves in, 
and to sew themselves up. It was not, however, Canning's 
iEolus, who, reversing his trident, had let forth Eurus and 
Nothus ; England did not ride the whirlwind, and had not 
been the Merlin of the storm. It is not, indeed, to be expected 
in the country of the winds, that operations should be very 
distinct, or the figure of the genius very discernible ; and thus 



7G 



HUNGARY. 



when thunderbolts do fall, the startled nations may attribute 

them to a wrong Jove. 

The astute, but earnest Emperor, Leopold the Second, had 
elaborated in the alchemy of his German brain two antagonistic 
Principles, which threatened to devastate Germany in the 
accident of their corporeal collision, — as he imagined them to 
be embodied severally in the neighbours of Germany on the 
North and on the West. That Emperor consequently adjusted 
his policy to meet this contingency, and thence that tempo- 
rising scheme for Hungary, which has not been without its 
influence on recent events. 

Napoleon too had his notions ; they agreed with those of 
Leopold in respect to number, but differed in character. The 
German's principles were Despotism and Anarchy; the 
Corsican's, Revolution and Ambition. In the first case, 
Germany was only to be victimised ; in the second, Europe 
herself w r as to be the prize. So he too was swept from the 
scene, and passed away as a myth, only that he left behind 
him a wreck, and a paradox. He bequeathed Europe to 
Ambition (Alexander), as Leopold had prepared Austria for 
Despotism (Pa skie witch). As for his prophecy of our be- 
coming " Republican or Cossack," what child does not now 
see that these are but two stations on the same road, — all 
the roads lead one way : "Empire'" 5 brought the Calmucks to 
Paris ; " Constitution" the Baskirs to Pesth. Thus, whilst 
the winds of '48 were blowing, and mankind was engaged in 
ascertaining their direction and estimating their effects, 
Russia leisurely laid one mailed hand on the heart of Austria, 
and stretched with the other arm, an encircling embrace around 
the Danish Belt. Here, for a time, pauses the epic, which 
opened at Isla de Leon, and we proceed to the incidents of 
the Hungarian canto. 

We have heard enough that the inhabitants of Hungary 
are Magyars, but what it was important to know, and what 
for the best of reasons no one comprehends, is, that the 
Magyars are not Europeans : this truth the legislation of a 
hundred Diets and the rhetoric of a thousand Kossuths cannot 



POLITICAL VALUE. 



7? 



pervert ; it is a fact which the Camarilla of Vienna, the Foreign 
Office of London, and Field Marshal Prince Paskiewitch him- 
self cannot alter. The upper basin of the Danube is not in- 
cluded in the region of the winds, and owes as yet no fealty to 
the sceptre of iEolus. Had it been so, the chaos of the conti- 
nent would ere this have been reduced to the order that reigns 
at Warsaw ; the Hungarians, like the Spaniards, are an un- 
reasoning mass : slow in Progress, backwards in Civilization. 

Wars in the West lead to great effusion of blood, but to 
little alteration of frontiers ; those in the East alone deter- 
mine great results. In the one case, contest is a mere shock of 
equally powerful arms, or equally futile doctrines ; in the other, 
it is a tide sweeping on to dominion for a thousand years. 
On the descendants of Attila and his Seven Hordes hangs 
at this hour the future fate of European society ; for Poland, 
and especially Hungary, though subjugated, stand even as 
the wreck of a battered wall in the victor's way. 

Identity of race is no motive for political union ; but when 
two people have the same interests and the same enemies, 
and happen to be of the same race, their enemy being of a 
different one, then indeed does that relationship become 
profitable and noble. The Turks are slow to move, and not 
likely, under any considerations of advantage, to unite them- 
selves with a Christian people. But their ancient associations 
with the Hungarians, acting like gravitation on inanimate 
bodies, steadying for a time at least the Eastern bulwarks of 
the fabric of general power, afford to Europe a reprieve and 
a security not the less real because she is unconscious of its 
existence. 

It is doubtless true that the fiercest wars have been carried 
on between the two people : so long as Hungary stood by 
herself, so long as the ancient line of monarchs, or the elected 
sovereigns, possessed the supreme sway, she dreaded the 
Turkish power ; the very ties which united the people 
rendered that hostility all the more intense. When a member 
of the House of Hapsburg was elected to the throne, the 
position was reversed. Then Austria, the Empire, Germany, 



78 



HUNGARY. 



and the West, became for Hungary the sources of dread and 
the causes of suffering, and she turned towards the Sultans 
as to Protectors. This change occurred in the sixteenth 
century, when Turkey had ceased to be dangerous, but was 
still powerful. It was, in fact, at the instigation of the 
defeated competitor of Ferdinand (brother of Charles Y) that 
the Turks invaded Austria and besieged Vienna. If Hungary 
did, under the most trying circumstances, preserve her ancient 
Institutions down to these evil days, it is to be attributed to 
that confidence, no less than to that Constitution's inherent 
worth. 

So long as this latent alliance with Turkey imposed on 
Austria respect for the Constitution of Hungary, that country 
was the main strength of the Emperor at Yienna : its support 
was yielded to him on every contingency, not by a blind 
and slavish submission, but by a free loyalty of the people, 
exercisedthrough theorgan of their legitimate Representatives. 
Maria Theresa was enabled to maintain the seven years' war 
against Prussia, only after carrying her infant son to the Diet 
at Presburg, and entrusting him and herself to its chival- 
rous guardianship. Again, against Napoleon was Francis 
enabled to make head in consequence of the enthusiastic 
declaration of the Diet of Presburg and its steady refusal to 
accede to the overtures of France. But the circumstance 
peculiarly bearing upon present events, was the war of the 
Spanish succession. The Austrian encroachments had at that 
time driven Hungary into rebellion. Louis XIY did not 
neglect the occasion thus offered to him, not only of paralys- 
ing Austria, and depriving the Allies (England and Holland) 
of her support, but of subduing the Empire itself while 
securing the inheritance of Spain. There were, however, then 
in England, not Diplomatists but Statesmen : Bolingbroke 
was still writing despatches, and had not taken to essays. 
The Cabinet of St. James perceived that Austria could be 
no Ally if Hungary was her foe, and that Hungary could be 
her Mend only on one condition, — the preservation of her 
rights ; therefore, on being applied to by the Hungarians, 



POLITICAL VALUE. 



79 



it hastened to offer its good offices, which were successful in 
a settlement of differences between the two nations, Hungary 
and Austria, and the two Sovereigns, though one person, 
the King and the Emperor. This Treaty, concluded under 
the mediation of England, was signed at Szathmar, in 1711. 

In treating of Spain in 1834, we could find no reason for 
England's interference ; in Hungary, in 1848, we are equally 
destitute of a reason for her non-interference ; and if we 
accept the only reason suggested in the one case, — that of 
opposition to Eussia where no Eussia appeared, we can only 
be the more perplexed in accounting for the other. 

Let us consider in what position Hungary will now stand 
to Austria in any future war. Let us take the cases of a 
rupture with Turkey, with France, and with Eussia. 

1. The sympathies between the Turks and the Hungarians 
were, after all, one-sided. The recollections enduring in the 
hearts of the former, had in the latter been in recent times 
overlaid by their connection with Europe ; thus Austria, 
in her last three wars with Turkey, found no difficulty in 
obtaining from the Diet its contingent in troops and its con- 
tribution in money. Were a war now to break out, she 
would be under no necessity indeed to apply to Presburg 
for a contingent, and the Hungarians would without opposi- 
tion be enrolled, and sent forward to the frontier. Need I 
ask what effects would follow the first hostile shot ? — even 
if the troops did not pass over to the Sultan, Hungary would 
rise as one man, to shake off the now detested yoke of 
Austria. 

2. The Diet of Presburg, which declared against Louis XIV 
and Napoleon, no longer existing, the first symptom of a 
difference with Erance would force Austria to send all her 
disposable force away from the Ehine, and to concentrate it 
on the Danube. In such a war Hungary would no longer 
be the right hand of Austria, but the principal Ally of her 
enemy. She would be to Austria what Poland is to Eussia, 
multiplied sevenfold. 

3. Of a war with Eussia I need not speak. If Eussia's 



80 



HUNGARY. 



wliole disposable force was required to bring Hungary, even 
after an exhausting struggle, into submission to Vienna, how 
can Austria presume to stand a moment before that Ally, 
now backed by the Dependency which her own arms had 
before reduced. 

Had England known that it was her own hand which had 
stifled Poland, Hungary might have been spared. If she 
could nowunderstand that it was again her hand that had stifled 
Hungary, Austria and Turkey may hereafter be spared. I 
shall make the endeavour to put her in possession of this 
truth, from the Blue Books. We must first, however, glance 
at the petty treacheries within, by which armies were led 
to slaughter. 



8i 



CHAPTER II. 

Events in Himgary. 

At the very moment of the dispersion of its Government 
Hungary was achieving at Pakozd its first victory. The 
vaunting Jellachich was absolutely beaten by a handful of 
men ; he signed a suspension of arms, and decamped in the 
night, leaving ten thousand of his rearguard prisoners. 

The Austrian Government, infuriated at the murder of Count 
Lamberg and the defeat of Pakozd, declared Jellachich, who 
had been so easily defeated, and so ignominiously driven out, 
Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, and reinforced his army 
with the garrison of the capital. A sanguinary Insurrection 
at Vienna itself was the result. 

The Hungarian army had pursued Jellachich to the 
frontier; there it halted, waiting legal authority to cross. 
The Diet at Vienna gave an evasive answer, and enabled 
Windischgratz to assemble and dispose his forces for the bom- 
bardment of the city. The Hungarian army arrived too late, 
and was placed by treacheiy in the power of the Austrians ; 
its general, Moga, said before the court martial, by which 
he was afterwards tried, that the Austrian generals did 
not 'know how to take complete advantage of the opportunity 
he had given them. 

Kossuth, on the field of battle (Schwechat), displaced 
Moga, and made over the command to Gorgey : from that 
hour the Russian Intervention became inevitable. It has 
been supposed that the treason of Gorgey was an after- 
thought : I have it from Hungarian officers that, at that very 
moment, he spoke undisguisedly of the futility of the struggle 

# He had personal ties with the establishment of the Archduke 
Michael. Strange expressions are attributed to him, winch were 
interpreted as marks of genius, as those of Szechenyi were of madness. 



82 



HUNGAKY. 



yet it was the offer to lead the troops to Vienna that induced 

Kossuth to give him the command. 

Gorgey retreated across the frontier, followed by Win- 
dischgratz ; both armies then remained in inaction for weeks ! 
In consequence of Gorgey's representations of the necessity 
of concentration, the troops were collected from all parts, 
and placed under his command. Windischgratz at last 
advanced. Gorgey had drawn out his forces on an extended 
line — they were driven in upon even* point, save one (Wiesel- 
burg) ; he announced to the Government this action as a 
victory, and retreated. First, he neglected to take up a 
position on the Lake Neusiedler, from which he could not 
have been dislodged ; next, he passed through Eaab, neg- 
lecting equally the intrenchments, which had, at great 
expense, been thrown up ; then avoiding the impregnable 
position of Comorn, he made a straight course to Buda, as 
if, like the flying Scythian, to draw the Austrians on. Pertzel 
advancing with about 13,000 men, reached Moor, when 
Gorgey was distant about fifteen miles, and making sure of 
support, engaged the advanced guard of TVindischgratz — 
he was left to be beaten. Himself neglecting the Capital, 
its defences, its defenders, and the Danube, passed by Buda 
in hurried flight, evacuated the town, and abandoned the 
defence of the river and of the castle. Had he made a stand 
anywhere, he would have been joined by Pertzel's, and other 
small corps then on their march ; new levies were hastily 
being raised, and the army of 20,000 men in the south was 
marching to join him ; even while his army was at the lowest 
number it could not have been left in the rear ; had he stood 
still anywhere TVindischgratz coidd not have penetrated into 
Hungary. 

Gorgey had, during his retreat, written to the Committee 
of Defence to say that he corJd not insure the safety of the 
capital twenty -four hours : the Diet, in consequence, retired 
to Debretzin. He now issued a Proclamation, in which he 
charged the Diet with abandoning the army, and declared 



EVENTS. 



83 



that the army thenceforward would act for itself. This appeal 
was not responded to by the soldiers. 

Then, leaving the plain at the mercy of the enemy, he carried 
his army northward among the mountains. He divided 
it into two corps, — one of 10,000 men, commanded by 
Guyon, the other of 15,000, which he headed in person. 
These advanced or retreated, for it is difficult to define his 
operations, on parallel lines. He suffered the corps of Generals 
Simonich, Goetz, and Jablanowzski, to enter unopposed by dif- 
ferent passes, and was pursued by them. On the right flank he 
was cut off from the plain country by the main army of 
Windischgratz advancing from the Danube to the Theiss : 
in front, his passage was barred by Schlick, who, entering 
from the north, had taken up his position along the line of the 
great Gallician road, with 25,000 men, and occupied passes 
which it was supposed 100,000 men could not force. Gorgey 
had always kept suspiciously close to the Gallician frontier ; 
he had been deaf to every appeal from Guyon for cooperation : 
now no escape was left him, save by entering Gallicia and 
capitulating. Then it was that Guyon, at the battle of the 
Braniszko pass, unexpectedly opened a passage to both corps ; 
Gorgey allowed Schlick to cany off the remnants of his army 
when they were in his hands.* 

Obliged through Guyon' s inconvenient victory to effect his 
junction with the main army under Dembinski, he was present 
at the battle of Kapolna, where the Hungarians were deci- 
sively engaged with the main army of TVindischgratz ; he 
abandoned his post : he then called his officers together, and 
deposed the Commander-in-Chief. Xext day the action was 
renewed without results ; both parties retreated. After the 
first day at Kapolna, TVindischgratz had written to announce 
too hastily the utter discomfiture of the Hungarians, and 
thereupon was issued the Proclamation abolishing Hungaiy 

* This action, scarcely paralleled for its fortunate audacity and its 
important consequences, was the theme of coarse jokes in Gorgey's 
tent and at his table. 



84 



HUNGAEY. 



as an independent State. Up to this hour the Hungarians 

were acting by virtue of the royal authority. 

Kossuth now decided that a bold push should be made on 
Vienna with the main force under the command of Gorgey, 
strengthened by the garrison of Comorn, leaving 10,000 
men to invest Buda. Gorgey sent against Yienna 10,000, 
and 37,000 to Buda, of which 7,000 were cavalry. After 
storming several times, he wrote to say he could not take it. 
Kossuth replied, " Since you have sacrificed Vienna to Buda, 
at least take Buda," Gorgey afterwards accounted for the loss 
of the occasion, time, and men, by Kossuth's intermeddling. 
He then managed to consume week after week in inaction, 
till the Eussians were in the centre of Hungary. This was 
the denouement of the Drama, and its action thereafter has 
little interest. 

Narrated of some former time, would not the tale discredit 
history ? Might not the existence of Kossuth and Gorgey 
be denied, with more show of reason than that of Python 
and Chimsera ? Their motives defy, their achievements sur- 
pass, scrutiny and possibility. 

An adventurer is taken out of the lower grades, to be 
made General of an army by a country lawyer, who has 
become head of a nation ; this army is the sole defence of 
the insurgent nation ; it is before the Capital of an Empire, 
where its presence alone had created a Eevolution. The 
adventurer carries this army in flight through a difficult and 
narrow border district, where in all times this kingdom had 
made good its stand, or at least, attempted it : as he retreats 
reinforcements pour in; by merely standing still he can 
resume the offensive, still on he goes, leaving here to the 
right, a position which could not be turned; there to the 
left, a fortress that could not be taken. He passes by the 
Capital with all its resources, bisected by a mighty river ; 
he terrifies and disperses the Government by false reports, 
and then denounces them as cowards; having led the 
enemy into the centre of the country, he carries his army to 
the mountains, through the passes of which other bodies are 



EVENTS. 



85 



about to penetrate ; lie stops no gap, but presents himself 
to be chased by each of them, as they successively enter ; 
finally, he places himself in a trap between the corps which 
have so penetrated, and those which had followed him into 
the plain. A native army caught by foreigners in its own. 
gorges ! He is extricated by a disorderly miracle. Mean- 
while he leaves the Government to shift for itself, in ignorance 
of his intentions, prospects, condition, movements, and for 
six weeks of his, or his army's, existence. Forced by the 
victory of his subordinate to join the new army, under a new 
Commander-in-chief, he wrenches from it by disobedience a 
decisive victory, and deposes his Chief ! The authority of 
this adventurer depended all this while on the breath of the 
country lawyer. If such had been related of the war of 
Troy, who would not have set down the story as a fable, and 
who would have heard of Homer as a poet ? 

But this is nothing. The Hungarians, martial and civilian, 
hold this adventurer to be their first soldier, and in all these 
achievements a true patriot!* This too after his treachery 
has been accomplished and unmasked. I had not read one 
contemporary line respecting these events ; and it was only 
at Kutayah, in the midst of the chief actors, that I com- 
menced to inquire respecting them. From the origin Gorge v's 
treason appeared : it was the very first fact that presented 
itself: the plain narrative of the retreat from Vienna was 
not evidence, but demonstration. When I stated this it was 
met with incredulity — no, with anger. They could not 
brook the thought of having been led like dumb animals to 
slaughter, f 

* I have one exception to make in favour of General G-uyon, who 
not only suspected him, but denounced him as a traitor to Kossuth. 

t Count Szechenyi knew all from the beginning. His brother, 
chamberlain to the Archduchess Sophia, came to Pesth to detach 
liim from the Insurrection when the Hungarians knew not that they 
were to be insurged. He was doubtless initiated under a bond 
of secrecy, but had resolved to abide the consequences. In the 
Cabinet, as in private conversation, he often broke out in a wild 



86 



HUNGARY. 



The successes of the Hungarians after all their defences 
had been broken in, and Austria's forces assembled in the 
champaign centre of their country, does appear incompre- 
hensible : but Eussia had not made the Eevolution for Austria : 
her agency was at work as well in the Austrian Camp as in 
the Vienna Cabinet : Hungary might be filled with bravery, 
endowed with patriotism, adorned with genius ; she might 
bring forth armies by hundreds of thousands, and create tens 
of millions of resources, yet what did these avail? the 
humblest Russian attache kmw from the beginning what was 
to be done with her. After the event, a British Statesman 
did indeed connect the fall of Hungary with the mission of 
Lord Minto : had Sir James Graham only anticipated (time 
is everything in Diplomacy) he could have prevented the 
Catastrophe. 

Strangely has been overlooked the fact, that the Russian 
troops reached the centre of Hungary without firing a shot. 
Their entrance had, however, long been of public notoriety ; 
the Poles in the Hungarian service earnestly pressed the 
subject on the attention of all the Members of the Govern- 
ment ; Dembinski who commanded the northern army, had 
proposed to anticipate the danger by entering Gallicia : the 
Government sent to him positive instructions not to move 
northwards, and orders to the army to disobey him, if he did. 
To prevent the possibility of any obstacle being placed, by 
accident or insubordination, to the Russian advance, the 
Hungarian army was recalled, and marched to the south- 
ward. 

No great importance will, at present, be attached to the 

strain, which was taken to be indications of that madness which 
afterwards seized him. He would laugh when they spoke of success, 
sneer at their plans, speak of scaffolds as the issue, of barbarian 
hordes awaiting but the signal, and yet he continued to share 
the danger. Twice he attempted suicide. An eminent person, 
whom I will not name, went mad on discovering the treachery of 
Jellachich, as did the Austrian Minister, Count Stadion, on being 
made acquainted with the purpose, of inviting the Russians. 



EVENTS. 



87 



fact, because there is no one who has not decided that the 
struggle was desperate, and that a victory, more or less, won 
by the Hungarians, and a check or defeat, incurred by the 
Bussians, could noways alter the issue, and only swell the 
list of casualties ; but the fates were then balanced. Had the 
Eussians been once beaten, the war would have revived — Eussia 
taking the place of Austria, retired from the ring. "Whatever 
the chances in military operations, there was another in this 
duel in favour of the Hungarians. In various quarters, 
statements have appeared of the disposition of the Eussian 
troops to desert. These could not be inventions, because such 
a notion has no existence amongst us. I believe them to 
have been founded, because perfectly analagous to other cir- 
cumstances within my knowledge. In contact with Europeans 
the armies of Eussia are intractable and unimpressionable as 
lumps of iron, or masses of clay ; but many ties unite the 
populations of the East of Europe ; the men composing them 
belong to different races, very variously affected to the 
Eussian Empire and to its neighbours. The fact is notorious, 
that the Eussian army of occupation in the Danubian Pro- 
vinces had rendered itself so much an object of suspicion to the 
Government, that when it was withdrawn, the regiments were 
broken up, and dispersed to remote parts of the Empire. 
This was in consequence of its contact with the Turkish 
troops, against whom its animosities may be supposed to 
have been most vehemently excited. Under these circum- 
stances, it was not improbable that a check, or a defeat 
suffered by the Eussians might have been followed by the 
desertions even of entire corps, and it has been stated, that 
overtures to that effect had been positively made as an 
encouragement to the Hungarians to offer practical resistance.* 
At all events the withdrawal from the passes, of the Hungarian 
force, was a fact, which at the time, excited considerable 

* " During the Russian intervention, Eussian officers of high 
rank promised both to Kossuth and to Dembinski to pass over with 
the forces they commanded in the event of a pitched battle being 
won." — Letter by the Author of u The Revelations of Russia." 



8$ 



HUNGARY. 



attention, and was explained as being a p^in to entrap the 
Eussian army. This was the view of the case presented at 
St. Petersburg to the representative of England, who com- 
municated it to his court.* At a Council held to decide 
upon the Intervention, it has been reported, that Paskiewitch 
and a majority of the members was opposed to the measure 
on the grounds of danger to the Empire, in the event of a 
reverse. 

Are we then to infer that the reasons for deciding on the 
Intervention, which, as has been stated, " the Emperor 
Nicholas did not think fit to communicate to the Council" 
referred to Kossuth, no less than to Gorgey ? The facts I 
have mentioned, I first learned from Dembinski at Kutayah : 
he gave to them this colour, and, indeed, did not hesitate to 
charge Kossuth with treason. On this I applied to Kossuth 
himself, laid the statement before him, and asked for an 
explanation. He, to my amazement, admitted the general 
accuracy of the facts, and, in respect to them, offered the 
following explanation, which not having been taken down at 
the time, I cannot pretend to give precisely in his words, 
though I believe, that the words I am about to quote were 
the very ones that he used : 

" When I applied to the English Government for its good 
offices in settling our differences with Austria, the answer 
I received was, that it could not interfere in a 8 domestic 
concern.' I was astonished at this answer, but at least I 
took it as assured that England would suffer no other 
power to intrude itself on those ' domestic concerns.' As 
soon should T have doubted of my existence, as of England's 
determination never to allow Russia to enter Hungary. I 

* He writes on the 7th of August, 1849 " It is difficult to 
reconcile the energy and courage which have been shown by the 
principal Hungarian chiefs and the troops under their immediate 
orders, with the statements which form the introduction to this 
despatch, without considering the unresisted march of the Russians 
on Debretzin to be part of a preconceived plan." 



EVENTS. 



89 



therefore treated all warnings as the visions of idle brains. 
I did not wish, however, to furnish Russia with any pretext, 
and I thought also the moment favourable to bring our whole 
strength against Austria, while she was deceived into the 
expectation of Eussian succour. I suspected nothing but 
the Austrian Camarilla. I now see that there was nothing 
but treacheiy within and without." 

This confidence in England had, however, a still more 
fatal effect than that of leaving unguarded the passes of the 
Carpathians : it carried their attention away from the only 
point to which they had to look — from the only Power that 
could have befriended them ; and where, as proved on so 
many memorable occasions, there was a field for the action of 
their own intelligence. Their very first business was to send 
to Constantinople ; the first care of any official, deserving 
the name of a man, was to select for that great, but arduous 
duty, the first capacity that Hungary possessed. It was 
not the people* of Hungary that were blind — it was the 
Kossuths and the Bathyanyis. No doubt, as we shall pre- 
sently see, the Turkish Government had been placed in difficult 
and embarrassing position by the prior occupation of its 
northern provinces: but the game was difficult on both 
sides. Without that prior occupation there would have been 
no Eevolutions in 1848 ; the pivot of the whole diplomatic 
action, was the Eussian force at Bucharest. Whatwas required 
at Constantinople was an agent able to show to the Turkish 
Government the collusion of the Western Powers, with Eussia. 
This is the truth, and unless known, nothing can anywhere 
be done. But the Government of Hungary had not mastered 
the diplomatic position of Europe, and conceived the matter to 
be a military one, and the parties to be itself and Austria. 
After all great science was not required. Excited as was the 
Turkish nation— alarmed as were its leading statesmen, in- 

* In travelling through Hungary I have had the money for post 
horses returned to me, because I was known to be a friend of the 
Turks, 



90 



HTTNGAUY. 



dignant and confident as was its army, little urgency was 
* required to bring it to a decision to declare war, that is to sav 
to effect a pacification. But the only Hungarian with capacity 
for action, had been sent to England, where he was engaged 
in an attempt, by the offer of a Commercial Treaty, to purchase 
England's support. They sent to Constantinople a foreigner 
and Englishman, who had given himself out as a secret agent 
of the Foreign Office, and was in fact a near relative of the 
second officer of that department. To the incidents of this 
mission I will subsequently refer. 

When the Eussians had thus been let in, the Government 
with Kossuth, who had now discovered his mistake, retired 
to Segedin, where he made a remarkable speech, his recollec- 
tions of which, at my request, he has thus set down : — 

" Now, by the Eussian invasion, our glorious struggle is 
raised to a higher pitch. In our battles henceforth will be 
fought the battle of the freedom of the world. To be the 
liberators or the martyrs of the world, that is our destiny. 
The people of Europe know it to be so. They know our 
cause to be their cause; and they would help us — help them- 
selves in helping us, but they cannot do it, because their 
Governments have enchained their will, and many of them 
have betrayed their people to foreign domination. Do not 
be angry for it at the nations of the world — pity them rather. 
It is their misfortune, not their fault. We stand alone, alone 
with the Almighty God, and our arms : but though by mis- 
chief shaken, still we stand. I don't know if we shall come 
forth as victors out of the gigantic struggle, because I don't 
know if my people will stand at my side, like a single man, 
as it has stood till now. Could I but know this, I coidd 
prophecy you victory ; I would tell you, that we will shake 
the infernal giant, who presumes to impose his laws upon 
the world — we will shake him to his very foundation in his 
own home. But, however this may be, this one thing I 
know, if we be victors we shall have rescued the world — if 
we fall we shall have fallen martyrs to the world. Will you 



EVEXTS. 



91 



accept this saint mission from God — will you fight? Will you 
vanquish if you can — die if you must — for the freedom of the 
world?" 

It being important to know that Kossuth, whatever may 
be the opinions entertained of him, had formed his judgment 
on the causes of his country's subjugation at the time, and 
on his own grounds ; I insert a report of the speech from 
the journal of Mr. Longworth, with which he has kindly 
furnished me : that journal was on the point of publication, 
when he received a Consular appointment, and it was con- 
sequently suppressed. 

" As far as the Austrians were concerned, and for anything 
they could do, the war had been terminated; the God of 
battles had unequivocally declared himself for Hungary ; but 
against that decree they had appealed to the Eussian Czar — 
they had invoked the aid of the eternal enemies of human 
rights and human liberties. That appeal had been responded 
to, and the Muscovite masses and wild Cossack hordes were 
already there to promote peace and order, and to settle a 
question of constitutional right with their lances and bayo- 
nets ; while Hungary, deserted by all the world, was left to 
fight single-handed and alone, not her own battle only, but 
— shame to England ! and double shame to France ! — the 
battles of freedom, justice, and humanity. If such be the 
will of Providence, be it so — let God's will be done, and as 
from Debretzin we went forth to reconquer the liberties of 
Hungary, we will march from Szegedin to restore freedom to 
the world." 

There is a wild fanaticism in the manner of this self- 
sacrifice, which scarcely finds a parallel, it recalls the fas- 
cination of the devotees of Alamout, and the frenzy of the 
defenders of the temple of Salem. It scarcely seems to be a 
historical fact, at least of our times. But the effort, gigantic 
as it was, was all in vain, and craft prevailed. 



HUNGARY. 



As on former occasions, the overpowered Hungarians seek 
refuge in Turkey. It had never before entered into the thoughts 
of Austria to demand their Extradition, and no alteration 
had taken place in the Treaties between the two Empires. 
Eussia was only Austria's friend ; no refugees had passed 
out of her territory, but out of that of Austria. Never- 
theless, the two Governments demand their surrender, and 
on its refusal threaten war. 

The Treaties referred to freebooters and malefactors, and 
contained different stipulations : the Austrian Surrender 
or Internment, the Eussian Surrender, or Expulsion. The 
English Government promised to Turkey support on the 
condition of her complying with -its advice, which was 
Expulsion. In terms it denied the right claimed by Eussia ; in 
fact it admitted it, and it applied the alternative of the 
Eussian Treaties to the Austrian case. The entrance of the 
squadron into the Dardanelles occurred after Eussia had 
yielded, but had it happened at an earlier period, it could 
not have altered the despatches. 

England exercised no influence for the liberation of the 
refugees until the middle of April, 1851. 

That is to say, not until Kossuth had entered into com- 
munications with Mazzini, whose agent (Mr. Lemmi) was his 
private secretary when he left Kutayah. Liberated at the 
close of 1850, he would have proclaimed to Europe, "That 
Eussia had in every Cabinet a spy, if not an agent:" 
liberated in June, 1851, he was fit to write the Marseilles 
Letter, and unconsciously to play his part in the coup 
d'etat of the 2d of December. At the first period his 
" war" would have been a real one, against the real foe, one 
of words, levelled at St. Petersburgh, not of rockets at 
Vienna. 

I cannot dismiss this extraordinary man, in whom alone 
have been evolved the convulsions of Hungary, without 
acknowledging the service that he has rendered in one respect, 
and which to render required no small amount of fidelity and 
courage : he uttered in the ears of the people of England the 



EVENTS. 



98 



words, "Secret Diplomacy the last sounds upon his lips, 
as his political existence passed into Buddhistic Nirvana, 
and as the green glades of the New Forest were fading on 
his view, were : — 

" Gentlemen, read tlie Blue Books. 33 

I adopt the instruction, I open these Blue Books, to the 
contents and perversions of which my attention was first 
called by a letter of his from Kutayah : from them I give the 
. <c diplomatic/' that is to say, the real history of the transaction, 
a Comedy in incident — a Tragedy in result ; uniting to the 
action of an epic, the extravagance of a romance. 



94 



CHAPTER in. 
Diplomatic Review. 

The internal changes which occurred in Hungary in the 
early part of 1848 must not be classed with the Revolutions 
of that year throughout the rest of Europe. That country 
was, indeed, vehemently agitated at the time by discussions, 
originating in an attempt of the Austrian Government to 
change the provincial administration and to prevent the Diet 
from taking measures for the emancipation of the serfs. The 
events of Paris had the effect of enabling them to carry in- 
stantaneously in the Diet these long matured purposes, which 
were wholly of a constitutional kind. It is true that, in the 
excitement of the moment, other speculative propositions 
were introduced, which, had they come into operation, would 
no doubt have in time changed the character of Hungary, 
and destroyed that resistance to the encroachments of the 
Government of Vienna which it had so long presented : but 
like the Constitution of Spain in 1812, these remained a dead 
letter, and were, in fact, ignored on both sides. There was, 
therefore, no Revolution in Hungary. 

But this was not all. The Hungarians have no sympathy 
with the Germans in general, far less with those of Vienna. 
Neither had they any sympathies with the revolutionary move- 
ments of the West. The liberal Constitution which the 
Viennese Insurrection produced, was to them an object of not 
less distaste or aversion, than the avowed despotism or the 
masked intrigues of that Cabinet. This disposition was evinced 
in their refusal to take any part therein ; and, in fact, it was to 
Kossuth at the critical moment that the Emperor owed the 
preservation of his crown, and perhaps of his life. So far 
from the existence of any real animosity towards the legi- 
timate authority of the Empire, the Hungarian Government 



ENGLISH MEDIATION. 



recognised the importance of sustaining its military power, 
and even in the dubious exercise of that power in Lombardy, 
the Diet did not refuse its contingent of men, although it 
appended conditions which rendered it unavailable, but con- 
• ditions which its honour and security required. 

In fact, all alarms regarding Hungary had subsequently to 
the month of April ceased in Europe, and the collision with 
the Austrians arose out of no internal measures whatever 
It was simply an international transaction, originating in an 
attack on a body of Hungarians by a force under the com- 
mand of a chief at that very moment publicly proclaimed as 
a rebel by the Emperor, although immediately afterward 
appointed his Representative. I subjoin in a note some 
extracts from the Blue Books,* which will show that in 
what I have said of the relations between Austria and 
Hungary, I but re-echo the opinion of the English Am- 

* " The Hungarian revolution is now complete." — Mr. Blackwell 
18th March, 1848. 

" Count Louis Batthyanyi has been here during some days, and 
the Ministry formed by him seems to give satisfaction in Hungary, 
and will be agreed to by this Grovernment. It appears to me that 
there are reasons which might influence the patriots who take the 
lead in the Hungarian Diet, to content themselves with what they 
have obtained." — Lord Ponsonhg, March 18th, 

"The great object of dread to the Hungarians is the Russian 
Power ; and it may perhaps appear that the measures pursued by 
the Hungarians, tending as they do to a breach with the Austrians, 
will prove to be primary means for bringing that Power into Hungary 
which is the most dreaded by the Hungarian leaders."— Lord 
Ponsonby, 3d May. 

" I had the opportunity this evening of ascertaining from Prince 
Paul Esterhazy and from Count Batthyanyi, and the Chief Minister 
of Hungary, that the Hungarian Government had not made any such 
demand, but, on the contrary, the Hungarian Ministry were ready 
to furnish the Emperor with 100,000 men, if needed ; that they had 
said to his Imperial Majesty, they only wanted to keep in their 
country some 15,000 to 20,000 men, to maintain order amongst a 
population amounting to 14,000,000 or 15,000,000. It is impossible 
to doubt the word of the above-mentioned personages, and giving 
credit to them, it follows that very much> and indeed most of what 



96 



HUNGABY. 



bassador at Vienna, and, as may therefore be inferred, of the 
British Government. That opinion was that the " Kevoln- 
tion " had not disturbed the connection of Austria and 
Hungary, and that any danger arising from it was connected 
with Bussia. 

In a former chapter I have stated that the existing relations 
between Austria and Hungary had been, for the last time, 
settled by a Treaty concluded under the mediation of England 
in 1711. The two nations were at war. Hungary applied 
to England for her good offices ; these she readily yielded, on 
the ground of the necessity of supporting Austria, then her 
Ally against France. Much stronger grounds than those upon 
which England based her interference in Sicily were here 
presented, and much graver circumstances than those which 
had induced her interference in 1711 : equally greater were the 
facilities which she possessed. Then she had to seek Austria's 
aid ; now Austria feared her : at the former period her in- 
ducement was the curbing of the Octogenarian ambition of 
Louis XIV : now it was the closing of the centre of Europe 
against Russia. She had the absolute command of the whole 
question, of Austria by her power, of Hungary by her 
influence; the unexpected and truly wonderful efforts made by 
Hungary, and the hopelessness of its subjugation by all the 
power of Austria, combined to furnish every inducement to 
the British Cabinet to act with vigour, which it is possible 
for necessity to impose, or advantages to invite. 

It was under these circumstances that at the night of 1848, 
an agent of the Hungarian Government arrived in London, 
and addressed to the Foreign Office a request to be allowed to 
communicate with it on the then state of affairs. Before 
quoting the reply which he received, I must mention that that 
Office had shown no hesitation to enter into communication 

had appeared alarming in the situation of Hungary has disappeared." 
— Lord Ponsonby, 3d May. 

" The Count (Batthyanyi) appeared to think it very necessary to 
keep up the military power of the Austrian Empire." — Lord 

Ponsonby i 5th of May. 



ENGLISH MEDIATION. 



97 



with the insurgents of any country ; that it had furnished 
arms to the Sicilians ; that it had saluted there the Ee- 
volutionary flag ; and that the Foreign Minister himself had 
requested letters of introduction from Mazzini to the different 
clubs of Italy for the son of Lord Eddisbury, the Under 
Secretary of State. I have also to remark that the Hungarians 
were at the period in question, whatever their former relations 
with the Court of Vienna, now in possession on unquestionable 
grounds of belligerent rights. The reply was the following : — 

" Lord Eddisbury to * * * 

"Foreign Office, December 12, 1848. 

"Sib, — In reply to your letter of the 15th instant, I am 
directed by Viscount Palmerston to say that Her Majesty's 
Government can take no cognizance of those internal questions 
between Hungary and the Austrian dominions to which your 
letters refer ; but that the British Government has no diplo- 
matic relations with Hungary except as a component part of 
the Austrian Empire, and can receive communications respect- 
ing Hungary only through the diplomatic organ of the Emperor 
of Austria at this Court. 

" I am, &c, 

"Eddisbury." 

It had already been suggested by the Ambassador at 
Vienna, and was of public notoriety, that Austria unable 
herself to reduce the Hungarians, would call in the armies of 
Eussia, already advanced to the frontier, and stationed in the 
neighbouring Turkish provinces. This reply must therefore 
be considered as written with that result in view — a result 
which the interposition of England could have alone averted, 
Its effect on the Hungarians must be self-evident, but it 
is used equally for the Austrians. It is sent to Vienna 
enclosed in the following despatch : — 

, 5 



93 



HUNGARY. 



"Foreign Office, December 20, 1848. 

" My Loud, — I herewith, transmit to your Excellency, for 
your information, a copy of a letter which I have caused 
to be addressed to a person representing himself as charged 
with communications from Hungary. 

" I am, &c:, 

" Palmerstox." 

This is the only ostentible communication* made to 
Vienna during the whole course of these proceedings, that 
is to say, from February, 1848, down to August, 1849 ; 
when therefore the Intervention takes place, the formal com- 
munication of which reaches London on May 11th, lS41) ; f 
we are quite prepared to find that the British Minister has 
nothing to say, though perhaps not so for his announcing 
directly to the Government of St. Petersburgh that fact. He 
writes as follows on the 17th of May. 

"Foreign Office, May 17, 1S49. 

"Much as Her Majesty's Government regret this Inter- 
ference of Eussia, the causes which have led to it, and the 
effects which it may produce, they nevertheless have not con- 
sidered the occasion to be one which at present calls for any 
formal expression of the opinions of Great Britain on the 
matter. 5 ' 

* There is another about the Diet which has no diplomatic bearing. 

f It is announced the same day to Parliament in the following 
terms : — " Her Majesty's Government had this day received infor- 
mation from the Chargee d' Affaires at Tienna, that an application for 
military assistance in a war between Austria and Hungary, was sent 
by Austria to the Russian Grovernment, and the application had 
been attended to, and was going to be complied with ; and, although 
no Russian troops had as yet entered, a Russian force was expected. 
Her Majesty's G-overnment had taken no steps to offer then' media- 
tion between Austria and Hungary, and the Austrian G-overnment 
had no desire for such mediation." — Zord Falmersto/i^L&y Hth, 18-A9. 



ENGLISH MEDIATION. 



99 



The Russian Intervention so prepared for, and so accepted, 
by the English Minister, appears, however, to have been 
treated by him in his communications with certain of the 
Representatives abroad as by no means likely, and as indeed 
impossible, in consequence of the communications he had 
received from the Russian Ambassador. In the Despatches 
to and from St. Petersburgh there is not a line upon this 
matter ; in those from Yienna, it is repeatedly mentioned, 
Lord Ponsonby more than once announcing his conviction, 
but not a word is addressed to him by the Foreign 
Minister. With Constantinople it is different ; in the cor- 
respondence as published there is indeed nothing ; but an 
incidental reference in the Despatches of Lord Ponsonby 
makes us aware of the fact. He quotes (Nov. 7, 1848) a 
passage from a suppressed Despatch of Lord Palmerston to 
Sir Stratford Canning, on which he proceeds to make com- 
ments, showing that he considered it levelled against him 
no less than against Sir Stratford Canning. The passage 
is as follows : — 

"There are some who imagine that the advance of 
that force in those" (the Danubian) " provinces is not wholly 
un connected with the events which have been passing 
in Hungary ; and that the Emperor has contemplated the pos- 
sibility of his being ashed by the Austrian Government to 
assist in restoring order in Pesth." 

"We are left in the dark as to the remarkable passage which 
must have followed this quotation, but it does not require a 
very active imagination to fill up the void. Sir S. Canning 
has to be reconciled to the Occupation of Wallachia, and to 
be relieved from apprehensions as to the Invasion of Hungary. 
I therefore supply the omission with as much confidence as 
if I had before me the archives of the Foreign Office. I 
have more than once set down beforehand what that minister 
would say : I may venture after the event on what he has 
said ; — 



100 



HUNGARY. 



"Tour Excellency is, however, far too judicious not to have 
observed that these troops, having entered without orders 
from the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh, the operation can scarcely 
have been combined with any ulterior views ; that as the 
corps is not large, its entrance has been sanctioned (as stated 
in a communication I have received from Count Nesselrode), 
by the Porte ; that having for its object the maintenance or 
re-establishment of order, and being limited to the perform- 
ance of that service, Her Majesty's Government do not feel 
themselves called upon to make any representation on the 
subject. Russia, moreover, has certain relations with those 
Principalities as a protecting Power, by virtue of Treaties, 
and therefore it is not entirely a case of the entrance of the 
troops of one Government into the territory of another." 
qohidmltfl bio J oj T^if 7/0 r A ?cia^/ff *<*U'r\i«A 

Every word here is Lord Palmerston's own.* This is 
the only possible explanation of his conduct. Why, then, 
is it suppressed ? Explanation ! Who inquires into any- 
thing ? The British nation does not ; the world does 
not. All the Minister has to care for is an intemperate 
Despatch of one Ambassador (Sir Stratford Canning), and a 
captious question of one member of the House of Commons 
(Lord Dudley Stuart). When by a phrase he has secured 
the reluctant services of the one and the agitated friendship 
of the other, his difficulties are overcome. The Tyrian 
Hercules was represented with a closed fist and an open 
palm : this was the impersonation of art, a type reproduced 
wherever the science has prevailed ; above all, in the Blue 
Books of the Foreign Office. 

The reader may be curious to know why Lord Ponsonby 
made the quotation, and what he said thereupon. He said 
this:—"/ have little doubt that the Emperor of Russia 

* Questioned on the 2d March, 1849, in tho House, respecting 
the entrance of the Russians into Transylvania, he says, they went 
for the protection of the "frontier towns," "but they did not, I 
think, take any other part in the hostilities going on." 



ENGLISH MEDIATION. 101 



would give the most efficient aid to the Emperor of Austria 
in Hungary." But he says something more, and hesitates 
not to tell his chief that, in case of need, the same aid will 
be afforded for Italy ! 

To judge by the Blue Books, the English Government 
must have treated the Hungarian war as a matter altogether 
subordinate and insignificant ; not only as of no importance, 
but as a thing that positively had no existence ; for how 
otherwise explain the total inaction, and next to total 
silence, of a Government not remarkable for its indifference, 
and of a Minister not characterised by either imbecility or 
diffidence, and who at the very time was exerting himself 
with ceaseless, unscrupulous, and inexplicable activity on 
every other field, to raise embarrassments to Austria and to 
furnish facilities to Eussia ? Now listen to Lord Palmerston 
in the House of Commons, on the 21st of July : — 

" I firmly believe that in this war between Austria and 
Hungary there is enlisted on the side of Hungary the hearts 
and souls of the whole people of that country. I believe 
that the other races distinct from the Magyars have forgotten 
the former feuds that existed between them and the Magyar 
population, and that the greater portion of the people have 
engaged in what they consider a great national contest. 

" I take the question that is now to be fought for on the 
plains of Hungary to be this , whether Hungary shall con- 
tinue to maintain its separate Nationality as a distinct kingdom, 
and with a Constitution of its own, or whether it is to be 
incorporated more or less in the aggregate Constitution that 
is to be given to the Austrian Empire. It is a most painful 
sight to see such forces as are now arrayed against Hungary, 
proceeding to a war fraught with such tremendous conse- 
quences on a question that it might have been hoped would 
have been settled peacefully. It is of the utmost importance 
to Europe that Austria should remain great and powerful ; 
but it is impossible to disguise from ourselves that if the war 
is to be fought out, Austria must, &c 



102 



HUNGARY. 



" If, on the other hand, the war being fought out to the 
uttermost, Hungary should by superior forces" (what forces ?) 
" be entirely crushed, Austria in that battle will have crushed 
her own right arm. Every field that is laid waste is an 
Austrian resource destroyed ; every man that perishes upon 
the field among the Hungarian ranks is an Austrian soldier 
deducted from the defensive forces of the Empire. 

" It is, I say, devoutly to be unshed that this great contest 
may be brought to a termination by some amicable arrange- 
ment between the contending parties which shall cn the one 
hand satisfy the national feelings of the Hungarians, and on 
the other hand not leave to Austria another and a larger 
Poland within her Empire." 

Why was not this written in a Despatch in the previous 
December, when the communications of Hungary were re- 
jected with scorn, and transmitted to Vienna ? Why not in 
November when Lord Ponsonby had exposed the absurdity 
of Lord Palnierst oil's assumption that the Russians would 
not interfere ? Why not in the previous month or months — 
why not at the origin of the difference ? * Why then was it 
said in Parliament in July — after, too, Russia had been told 
in May that the English ^Minister had nothing to say. 

This speech, delivered amidst peals of applause by the sup- 
porters of the Government, filled with admiration their 
opponents. The unwonted earnestness of its tone, the deep 
bearing of its judgments, and the balanced arrangement 
and order of its exposition, made them see in the Minister 
by whom it was delivered a Statesman of whom England 
" was proud." Who now on reading it could believe that 
when it was uttered, the Russian armies were in the centre 
of Hungary, and that the cheering audience knew the fact ! 
It concludes in these terms : — 

" In the present state of the matter, Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment have not thought that any opportunity has as yet 
presented itself that could enable them, with any prospect of 



ENGLISH MEDIATION. 



103 



advantage, to make any official communication of those 
opinions which they entertain on this subject/' 

In the present state of the matter! Could it become better ? 
Not a word till Eussia has interfered: he waits to speak 
until he has an audience cowed. The Eussia that never 
rises to his lips, is all that is in their thoughts, and their 
honour and courage are redeemed by the considerate " as 
?et." 

Supposing the Government up to the 21st of July had 
perceived nothing, and that only on the 21st of July, it had 
been startled at the awful consequences, — what was there to 
prevent its interposing then ? " Oh," says Lord Palmerston, 
*' Austria is indisposed to admit our Mediation." AVere 
Austria's feelings consulted w r hen the Italian Despatch ot 
the 11th of September, 1847, was written, or her indigna- 
tion regarded when it was published, without the reply? 
The question was now with Eussia, not Austria: then it 
was a " domestic affair" — a Foreign Power interposes, and 
then the Austrian question is discussed ! Of course, Austria 
is indisposed to an English Mediation ; she has not forgotten 
Switzerland, Lombai;dy and Sicily ; but that indisposition 
springing from fear, afforded the assurance of success. But 
having been informed that in this case England will not 
meddle, she of course presses on, and in all haste. 

The checking of a commercial account is an easy matter ; 
not so diplomatic entries, even if given complete, and in 
extenso ; how much more so when the real business is done 
by "private communications," and even the ostensible docu- 
ments are only inserted in extract ? Still we must endeavour 
to make out the balance sheet. 

By the Hungarian war, by the condition of Italy and 
Germany, by the fears entertained ori the side of Poland, 
and by the excitement prevailing throughout the Ottoman 
Empire, Eussia and Austria were both neutralised. England's 
control over both was entire; without drawing a weapon 



HUNGARY. 



she could have broken them to pieces. Independently of 
these adventitious circumstances, the Foreign Minister was 
a man equal to carry into effect against the opposition of 
Eussia, any legitimate object of British policy, and that 
minister had declared that the driving matters to extremity 
in Hungary, even as between it and Austria, was a matter 
the most alarming to British interests, and to those of all 
Europe. These points understood, the value of the " as yet" 
will be seen: the "as yet" was for Eussia and not for 
England. This is not the first time that such an entry was 
made. When Austria and France applied to the same 
Minister for his co-operation in preventing the fall of 
Poland, his answer was " not yet."* The " yet" came with 
order restored at Warsaw. Now it comes with order at Pesth. 

On the 1st of August England proposed to mediate. Had 
Austria's indisposition been removed ? Was it the triumph 
of the Hungarians, or of the Russians, that had brought the 
change. The Despatch opens historically : — 

* The Despatch in question was published by M. Louis Blanc, in 
his Histoire de Dix Ans. It has been several times read in the 
House of Commons, without its authenticity being questioned by 
Lord Palmerston. The following is an extract : — " That the amica- 
ble and satisfactory relations between the Cabinet of St. James's, 
and the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh, would not allow his Britannic 
Majesty to undertake such an interference. The time was not yet 
come to undertake such a plan with success against Ihe will of a 
sovereign whose rights were indisputable" 

M. Louis Blanc thus mentions the transaction: 

" M. Walewski was despatched to sound the disposition of the 
Cabinet of the Tuileries and that of St. James's : the Palais Boyal 
did not reject the overtures of Austria, but simply declared that it 
was ready to join England, if England would consent to the project. 
M. Walewski then proceeded to London ; but the answer of the 
British Cabinet was * widely different from that of the French.' 
Lord Palmerston avowed c without reserve' that France and ' no 
other PoiverJ was the object of the 'distrust arid fear of England?" 

This passage I have also read in the House of Commons without 
a negation. 



ENGLISH MEDIATION. 



105 



" This war, which in its outset seemed to be a conflict 
between a discontented portion of the population of Hungary, 
and the Executive Government of Vienna, has gradually 
assumed the character and proportions of an important 
European transaction." After enumerating the forces on 
both sides, Eussia is slipped in in the following fashion : — 
f And in aid of this Austrian force, the whole disposable 
force of the Eussian Empire has been brought up to take part 
in the war." 

What can mean writing as follows from London to Vienna ? 

"To such an extent indeed has the Eussian army been 
employed in this transaction, that it has been found necessary 
that between 20,000 and 30,000 of the Eussian guards, who 
form the usual garrison of St. Petersburgh, should be 
marched to the south, to take up positions evacuated by 
other divisions which have been sent to take the field in 
Hungary; and the combined Austrian and Eussian forces 
operating in Hungary are said to amount to 300,000 men." 

If Eussia makes this effort, analogous ends are in view ; 
but this the reader must not suspect, so he is immediately 
informed that Eussia is cc operating for interests ichich can 
only be indirectly and constructively its own." The sub- 
jugation of Hungary, he says, involves two questions : " First, 
How far the triumph will turn to the real and permanent 
advantage of Austria." He touchingly replies to himself s 
" The discontent of the heart will not be extinguished 
because the hand has been disarmed," and assures the 
Austrian Cabinet that Hungary will become " a political can- 
cer, corroding the vital elements of the Empire's existence." 
The second question is, "What will be the compensation to 
be made for the gigantic exertions by which she will have 
been enabled to achieve that triumph?" He is here not 
quite so explicit, and reverts to a familiar formula : "That 



TOG 



HUNGARY. 



the English Government is entitled to inquire* whether any 
arrangements are in contemplation at variance with the let- 
ter, or the spirit, of the Treaty of Yienna." What ! when the 
interests of Russia have only just been stated as " indirect 
and constructive." As there was no one who did not .see 
that the Emperor of Russia now commanded at Yienna, so 
was there no one who had imagined, that a new delimitation 
of frontiers was required. The Despatch was written not to 
save the people of Hungary, but to satisfy those of England ; 
not to influence the Cabinet of Yienna, but to stultify that of 
St. James's; not to put in the hands of Prince Schwartzenberg, 
but in those of the printer of the House of Commons. It 
continues : 

" Her Majesty's Government would most heartily rejoice, if 
they could entertain a hope, that this conflict between an 
entire nation," (discontented portion ?) " and the armies of 
two great Empires might be brought to an early termination 
by an arrangement." 

.//'they could entertain ! They do entertain. 

" It appears to her Majesty's Government, that matters 
have not yet gone so far as to render such an arrangement 
impossible." 

"Not yet" again — with the Russians in the centre of the 
country — after the abolition of Hungary as an independent 
State — after their dethronement of the King ! You have no 
remonstrance, or protest, to show at Yienna, you answer 
the Hungarians, that you know Hungary only through 
Baron Koller, you send that answer to Yienna, — consequently 
the wonderful hope is soon turned to joy by the " happy and 
early return to good order and peace." 

* See Despatch, calling Russia to account for her proceedings in 
Central Asia, October 26th, 1838. 



ENGLISH MEDIATION. 



107 



This Despatch pretends to no other character than that of 
"reflections" on "One of the most important events that 
Europe has of late years experienced" It surely does not 
require to be a Minister of State to make reflections on im- 
portant events : if nothing but reflections are to be expected 
from Ministers of State, the expense is very superfluous, and 
the secresy very absurd. These reflections might just as well 
appear in a leader, when they might be read by the Govern- 
ment to which they are addressed, and if without profit, at 
least without offence. Then follows the specification of " the 
best means of carrying into effect the purposes of her Majesty's 
Government," which is by "reading this Despatch to Prince 
Schwartzenberg, and giving him a copy of it." 

A second Despatch, of the same date, directs the Ambas- 
sador to state, that he will feel great pleasure in attending, 
without the least delay, to any intimation which he may 
receive of the wishes of the Austrian Government to enter 
into negotiation with the Hungarians. Good God ! where is 
Baron Koller ? 

It is just, however, possible, that when the proposal of 
Mediation was sent, the Minister might not have been certain 
that the case was desperate. Let us see. 

-On the 3d of July, a long Despatch was written at the 
English Embassy, at Yienna, of which the following is the 
first paragraph : — 

" The operations of the Austrian and Eussian armies in 
Hungary are pushed on with vigour, and have been attended 
with such success, since I last had the honour to address 
your lordship on this subject, that a not distant end of the 
civil tear may be confidently looked to, 39 

This was received seven days before the Speech in the 
House, and eighteen days before the Offer of Mediation. 

On the 14th of July, a mass of intelligence is again 
despatched, the first paragraph of which announces the occupa- 
tion without resistance of the Capital of Hungary, This was 



103 



HUNGARY. 



received on the day the Speech in the House of Commons 
was delivered, and eleven days before the Offer of Mediation. 

On the 17th of July it is announced that Marshal Pas- 
kiewitch is advancing on the left bank of the Danube, towards 
Comorn, to cut off the retreat of the Hungarians — that 
General Grabbe has passed the mountains from the north — 
that Russian corps in Transylvania have repidsed General 
Bern, and taken twelve pieces of cannon, and that there are 
"no accounts of any large Hungarian forces in the field 
except the two mentioned." This is received seven days 
before the Offer of Mediation. 

On the 21st of July, Lord Ponsonby writes the Hungarian 
army from Comorn is under the command of Gorge\, and is 
said to be about 50,000 strong, with 120 pieces of cannon. 
Being foiled in their attempt to pass by Waitzen, and from 
thence by Pesth to Czegled they retreated under cover of the 
night towards the north, and the third corps of the Russian 
army under General Riidiger is now in pursuit of them, and 
further reports, " that the capital of Transylvania had been 
occupied by the Russian corps of General Liiders." 

This arrives three days before the Offer of Mediation. 

On the 22d of July, Lord Ponsonby writes, " the Hun- 
garian army under Gorgey was by the last accounts retreating 
along the road which leads from Waitzen to Balassa-Gyarmath 
and Losoncz, at which latter place it was supposed they would 
arrive on the 19th instant. They are closely pursued and 
continually harassed by the Russian corps of General Riidiger, 
and the official reports state that the men were deserting 'in 
thousands.' 

"The second edition of the Gazette of this morning says 
that the Hungarians under Bern in Transylvania had met with 
another defeat from the corps of General Liiders ; and that 
the Austrian corps of Count Clam-Gallas was marching upon 
Cronstadt to occupy the district which had been reduced. 55 

Xow, not a moment is to be lost, and in two days after the 
receipt of this communication, an elaborate despatch is on its 
way to Vienna with the Offer of Mediation. 



ENGLISH MEDIATION. 



109 



It is curious that the day hefore a messenger should arrive 
from St. Petersburgh without, at so critical a moment, 
bringing a single line worthy of insertion in the Blue 
Book, t 

However, by whoever devised, the plan was inimitable. 
Under such circumstances a Mediation was a bold and even 
original conception, but the result entirely depended on 
the apropos; the moment was to be hit between the im- 
possibility of its having effect, and the possibility of pro- 
posing it. That moment was calculated with an astronomical 
precision that would have done honour to aHaileyor aHerschel: 
a day before, it might have been attended to ; a day after it 
could not have been sent. Nor is this all ; it is so managed 
that it is sent and never arrives ; and is published in London, 
without having been received at Vienna ! 

It so happened, that exactly the day before it reached 
Vienna, Prince Schwartzenberg had started for Warsaw. Of 
coarse it could not be communicated to any other member 
of the Austrian Government ; Lord Ponsonby has, therefore, 
to express in reply his regrets that he has had no oppor- 
tunity " of carrying out your Lordship's instructions: 5 ' 
however, " his Highness will probably not return before the 
end of the week. 55 Before that week ended, Hungary was 
finally blown up, and, of course, there was no further any 
need to carry out his Lordship's instructions : the Mediation 
born in a "Not yet, 55 expired in a "No longer. 55 On the 
23d day of the self-same month that had witnessed the Eise 
and Occultation of this Lunar phenomenon from the Bedford 
Hotel at Brighton, — 

" Baron Brunow presents his compliments to Viscount 
Palmerston, and has the honour to conynunicate, &c, in the 
persuasion that he will learn with satisfaction an event which 
puts an end to the shedding of human blood, &c. 55 

"What had Baron Brunow to do with communicating on a 
subject on which his Government had been three months 
before informed that England had nothing to say : how 



110 



HUXGAEY. 



should he usurp the post of Baron Koller, from whom alone 
communications could be received respecting the " component 
parts" of the " Austrian dominions," or assume that his 
information at Brighton was so far in advance of that of the 
British Minister in Downing-street ? But mark how accident 
helps Russia, — the Foreign Minister positively was without 
intelligence : — 

cc Lord Palmerston presents his compliments to Baron 
Bruno w, and must rejoice in learning, &c." 

The same enthusiastic and hopeful temperament induces 
Lord Palmerston to congratulate on the same Event the 
Austrian Government which had not condescended to an- 
nounce it. Psychologically, the incident is curious, and the 
Despatch deserves the honour of insertion in extenso. 

" Viscount Palmerston to Viscount Ponsonby. 

"Foreign Office, August 28, 1849. 

" My Lord, — I have to instruct your Excellency to express 
to the Austrian Government the satisfaction which Her 
Majesty's Government have felt at hearing that the calamitous 
war which for the last two months has desolated Hungary, 
has been brought to a close by a pacification which Her 
Majesty's Government 7iqpe will prove in its results beneficial 
to all parties concerned. The eyes of all Europe will of 
course now be directed to the proceedings of the Austrian 
Government in a matter which has excited so deep and 
general an interest ; and Her Majesty's Government would 
fail in the performance of their duty, if they were not to 
instruct you to express the anxious hope which they feel in 
common with the people of this country, that the Austrian 
Government will make a generous use of the successes which 
it has obtained, and that in the arrangements which may be 
made between the Emperor of Austria and the Hungarian 
nation, due regard will be had to the ancient Constitutional 
rights of Hungary. A settlement founded on such a basis, 



ENGLISH MEDIATION. 



Ill 



with such improvements as the altered circumstances of the 
present times may require, will be the best security, not only 
for the welfare and contentment of Hungary, but for the 
future strength and prosperity of the Austrian Empire. Tour 
Excellency will read this Despatch to Prince Schwartzenberg, 
and will give him a copy of it. 

" I am, &c. 
" (Signed) Palmeeston." 

Her Majesty's Government's hopes, endeavours, and advice, 
are, however, always exposed to misadventure ; Prince 
Schwartzenberg makes the most unbecoming return, and sends 
a ferocious reply, which concludes in these terms : — 

"The world is agitated by a spirit of general subversion. 
England herself is not exempt from the influence of this 
spirit ; witness Canada, the Island of Cefalonia, and finally, 
unhappy Ireland. But wherever revolt breaks out within the 
vast limits of the British Empire, the English Government 
always knows how to maintain the authority of the law, were 
it even at the price of torrents of blood. 

" It is not for us to blame her. Whatever may, moreover, 
be the opinion which we form as to the causes of these insur- 
rectionary movements, as well as of the measures of repression 
employed by the British Government in order to stifle them, 
we consider it our duty to abstain from expressing that 
opinion, persuaded as we are that persons are apt to fall into 
gross errors, in making themselves judges of the often so 
complicated position of foreign countries. 

" By this conduct we consider we have acquired the right 
to expect that Lord Palmerston will practise with respect to 
us a perfect reciprocity, 

" You will read this Despatch to his Lordship, and you will 
give him a copy of the same." 

Such are the contents of the first Blue Book. I have, 
however, omitted two important particulars : first, that the 
addresses from the cities of England in favour of Hungary are 



112 



HUNGARY. 



communicated regularly to Vienna, Constantinople, and St. 
Petersburgh ; second, that the Russian Government has been 
informed that it is the opinion of Lord Palmerston, that '* it 
is highly desirable that the troops of each country should be 
kept within their own frontiers." 

Although, as proof, nothing more is required or need be 
added, I cannot conclude this part of the subject without 
recurring to some of the points where prevailing misjudgments 
facilitated deception. 

If we turn to the negotiations of 1792, which preceded the 
Coalition against France, it will be seen that England attached 
peculiar importance to the signature of the Emperor of Austria 
being appended as " King of Hungary;" — England was then 
under a Tory administration, — not Tory only in the English 
sense, but Anti-Revolutionary in the European one. It is, 
therefore, neither in the archives of the Foreign Office, nor 
in the practice of English Diplomacy, that it was found that 
Hungary was a 11 component part" of the " Austrian do- 
minions," — as the ab*eady cited transactions of 1711 show 
that it was neither unseemly nor impossible to hold commu- 
nication with a Nation in arms against its Sovereign. In 
1711, we wished to strengthen Austria as an Ally ; in 1S4S, 
we apprehend (as it is professed) the subversion of her inde- 
pendence, and we adopt the opposite course. We reject the 
application of the one, and adopt as the rule of our condmi 
the unwillingness of the other. Avowed desires remain barren, 
important interests are superseded, acknowledged dangers 
incurred, through ceremonious reserve. A reserve, however, 
unknown in the meridians of Italy and Denmark, where the 
forms of office and the courtesies of life are forgotten. Was 
it that subversive doctrines had not as yet taken root in 
Hungary? Was it that Italy was to be convulsed that 
Hungary might be put down ? 

This scrupulousness might still be intelligible, if the Hun- 
garian agent had been commissioned by persons merely 
disaffected, or engaged simply in plots, but Hungary enjoyed 



ENGLISH MEDIATION. 



113 



a de facto existence, her flag had been inaugurated by vic- 
tories ; that flag was neither "fanciful" nor "piratical," like 
that of the German Empire on the coast of Denmark ; she 
possessed belligerent Eights and was at war, and is told that 
she can be communicated with only through the Representa- 
tive of the Power with whom that war is being carried on ! 

If this reply was intended to repress inordinate hopes on 
the part of the Hungarians, the matter of it might be under- 
stood, however reprehensible the manner, but then it would 
have been carefully concealed from Austria, that her preten- 
sions might not be inflamed. Yet a communication so 
evidently designed to prevent a settlement passes with suc- 
cess as proof that the opposite result had been desired and 
sought. 

The salient features are : vehemence in the House of 
Commons, silence at St. Petersburgh ; contradiction between 
Minister and Ambassador ; the adoption of opposite sides in 
reference to a war by the British embassies, that of Vienna 
rejoicing in every defeat of the one party, that of Constanti- 
nople exulting in every check of the other, and all combining 
in one result : whoever recoils from the admission of system, 
must fall back on incoherence ; but in such a case, to what 
must incoherence lead ? 

The result, however, of the war wholly hinged upon a 
point only excluded from view, or fallaciously disguised 
under the terms "Turkish Neutrality." He, whoever he 
was, who reduced the Ottoman Empire to that predicament, 
and not Prince Paskiewitch, placed Hungary at the " feet of 
the Czar." 



114 



CHAPTER IV. 
Turkish Neutrality. 

For all military purposes Turkey was a party in the war ; 
she did not send forward Armies, but she lent her territory 
for the Eussian operations, along a frontier of several hundred 
miles ; opening passages through the mountains of the North 
and East into Transylvania, which otherwise would have been 
inaccessible, and giving entrance from the South through the 
gorge of the Danube into the plains of Lower Hungary. The 
resources of these Provinces — money, provisions, and means 
of transport, were also usurped by Eussia, and rendered sub- 
servient to the war. The Austrians when beaten found refuge 
there, and supplies, and thence they again issue to attack 
Hungary. The Eussian armies did not indeed enter Serbia, 
but there also were organised bodies of Invasion, not perhaps 
dangerous in the field, but calculated to excite intestine feuds 
by their relationship to the populations of the Banat. The 
enlistment took place under the auspices of the Eussian 
Consul, and the money was paid at " the Consulate." These 
effects were not limited to the period when Eussia became a 
party in the war, but were in operation from its very com- 
mencement, and the Eussian troops themselves had been 
engaged in Transylvania three months before the avowed 
Intervention took place. Had Turkey remained neutral, the 
Hungarians would have been secure on the whole of their 
Southern and Eastern frontiers, and could have brought up 
their entire disposable force to the North ; so that the results 
in a military point of view, may be said to have been deter- 
mined by the participation of Turkey in the war. 

This participation was, however, not voluntary. Her 
readiness, after the fall of Hungary, to meet the combined 



TURKISH NEUTRALITY. 



115 



forces of Russia and Austria to save a few of the exiles from 
an ignominious fate, dispenses me from the necessity of 
proving that the Turkish nation was ready to incur the risks, 
and undergo the sacrifices of a war to save Hungary, and the 
desistance of those two Empires from pressing their demand 
after, as I shall presently show, they had received the con- 
currence of England and France, equally relieves me from the 
necessity of proving, that its military resources were equal 
to such an enterprise. Turkey had at the time 212,000 
disciplined men, and could have raised, without difficulty, 
100,000 irregular horse, the whole of which she could have 
sent forward without any inconvenience or risk. She could 
have supplied the Hungarians with arms, of which they were 
principally in need, and the presence of a single Turkish regi- 
ment would have changed the whole face of the contest in 
Hungary. 

If then the participation of Turkey in the war on the side 
of Russia influenced the result, the assurance of her non- 
participation on the side of Hungary was requisite for its 
inception. It was a wonderful plan to combine, and it was 
settled in anticipation. It entirely depended upon the 
introduction of a Russian force into the Turkish Provinces of 
the Danube, which was executed when the Hungarian war 
was as yet undreamt of, save by visionaries, and when no 
difference existed between Russia and the Porte. It was, 
therefore, a direct attack upon the Integrity of the Ottoman 
Empire, and a violation of the Treaty of 1840, to which 
England, but not Prance, was a party. It could only, there- 
fore, be carried by the concurrence of England ; the evidence 
of that concurrence is to be found, not only in the absence of 
all opposition but in the effectual support given at Con- 
stantinople, and the declarations made in the House of Com- 
mons, where the English Minister stated falsely, that it was a 
measure undertaken with the consent and concurrence of the 
Turkish Government.* This Occupation was then sanctioned 

* See Speeches, 1st Sept, 1848 j 2d March, 1849 ; 22d March, 1819, 



116 



HUNGARY. 



by a Treaty, against which the Turkish Government, in vain, 
sought the support of the English Ambassador, and by that 
Treaty it was to continue to the year 1856. Henceforward 
the "Neutrality" of Turkey was practicable only by the 
cessation of the Occupation by Eussia, against which such 
precautions had been taken. That " Neutrality" could be 
observed only by saying to Eussia, " you shall not enter ; " 
it could not be maintained by saying, " you shall not go out." 
Had the Eussian troops been on the Pruth, the Turkish troops 
would have been at Pesth ; but the Eussian troops, being on 
the Danube, it was the Cossacks who arrived at Pesth. And 
it is England who has compromised the Porte into this false 
position, who urges upon it the maintenance of its "Neutrality." 

Eeduced to this dilemma, the " Neutrality" of Turkey had 
merely reference to the departure of the Eussian troops from 
Wallachia, where alone their presence had been endured on 
the score of their being required to maintain internal tran- 
quillity ; at least, it was not by urging at Constantinople the 
maintenance of Turkish " Neutrality" no more than by writing 
to St. Petersburgh, that it had nothing to say respecting the 
"neutrality" of Russia, that is, the Invasion of Hungary, that 
any results could be obtained in the sense of the principles 
expounded to Parliament on the 21st July, 18-19. 

The entrance, in June, 1848, of the Eussian troops into 
the Provinces had indeed been, according to the British 
Minister, " without orders from St. Petersburgh." On the 
1st of February, 1849, these insubordinate and erratic forces, 
equally "without orders," enter Transylvania ! Immediately, 
Sir Stratford Canning says to the Porte : — 

to WSi 8£u IO flOlJOB'LLfil . tfi SJ377 , IHjr8 Sill J 10 31D<s69Ctt YOB tfillt 

"I do not doubt that my Government will consider the 
said Intervention as prejudicing the rights of the Porte, and 
as calculated to make a most painful impression on the Porte, 
owing to the serious consequences which may follow." He 
writes home (4th February) that the French Ambassador 
had read to him a Despatch, 55 AThich expressed goodwill 
towards the Porte, and a just sense of all that was objection- 



TURKISH NEUTRALITY. 



117 



able in the late proceedings of Russia. TVe separated with 
an understanding that our respective interpreters should wait 
on Aali Pasha this morning with instructions calculated to 
encourage the Porte in maintaining substantially the view taken 
by its Commissioner at Bucharest of the Military Intervention 
in Transylvania authorised by the Russian Government.* 

Lord Palmerston answers, February 28th — 
f< I have to observe to your Excellency on this matter, that 
undoubtedly the passage of Russian troops through Turkish 
territory for the purpose of interfering in the civil war in 
the Austrian dominions, was an infraction of the neutrality 
icldch the Porte had determined to adopt in regard to that 
civil war, and was a Jit subject of remonstrance on the part of 
the Porte." 

As if he were speaking of a theme for a sonnet, or a 
subject for an essay. Sir Stratford Canning writes again 
on the 5 th April — 

" The Porte has not materially relaxed its preparations for 
an untoward contingency. Besides the circumstances which 
I have mentioned elsewhere, fresh orders have been sent to 
repair the defences of Varna and Silistria ; the Militia is col- 
lecting in the adjacent Province of Broussa, and the Pasha of 

* The Consul at Bucharest thus details the views of the Turkish 
Commissioner, Fuad Effendi, 22d February, 1847 : — "His Excellency 
begged General Duhamel to consider the effect of such a departure 
from all the principles of non-intervention which European Cabinets 
had laid down, that such a measure might lead to the adoption of a 
line of conduct on the part of Erance towards Austria on the Italian 
question, which France herself would regret to be forced to adopt j 
that any measure of this nature was an infraction of the law of 
nations, and of the treaty of 1841, to which Russia herself was a 
party ; and that, in the name of the Sultan, as his Representative, 
he declared himself opposed to the movement. 

"I must do Fuad" (Effendi?) "the justice to say I found him firm 
and consistent, and resolved to continue so $ but very anxious for 
instructions from Constantinople. 

" These are critical and difficult times, and I hope your Excellency 
will continue to favour me with your kind advice and instructions." 



118 



HUNGARY. 



Bosnia is ordered to have in readiness the whole disposable 
force of his neighbourhood." 

Now Lord Palmerston with despatch and explicitncss 
replies, 24th April — ; 

" I have to acquaint you that Baron Brunow lias stated 
to me that it is not the intention of the Emperor of Russia, 
in consequence of the retreat of the Russian detachment from 
Hermanstadt, to order his troops to advance into Transyl- 
vania, or to take any part in the civil war now raging in 
that province or in Hungary ; but that His Imperial Majesty 
will content himself with bestowing on the commander, and 
officers, and men of that detachment, his approbation of the 
manner in which they made their retreat, after having held in 
check for many hours a very superior force" (!) 

I have underlined the last sentence, to call attention to 
the value of a disjunctive particle, in reducing to the soberest 
dimensions the Intervention of a foreign Power in a " civil 
war," and in persuading another foreign Power, thereby 
vitally endangered, to take the matter coolly. 

On the same day that this Despatch was written in Down- 
ing Street, Mr. Magennis was writing from Vienna : 

" The reports from the Danubian Provinces mention the 
concentration of large bodies of Russian troops along the 
Transylvanian frontier. I can hardly doubt that the double 
motive of combating Polish anarchy and of overthrowing 
revolutionary principles in Hungary would insure the com- 
pliance of the Russian Government with any application 
from hence for aid." 

But Sir Stratford Canning, by the same messenger which 
brought from Lord Palmerston information of the Emperor 
of Russia's intention to take no further part in the war, 
received the official announcement of the Intervention ! 
What must have been the reflections of that Ambassador ? 
Can this incident have any connexion with the sudden burst 
of indignation, which startled a Christmas dinner party of 



TURKISH NEUTRALITY. 



119 



the British merchants, when striking the table with his 
clenched fist, he exclaimed, " And I serve such men /" 

The " official" intelligence which reached Vienna on the 
3d of May must have thence arrived in London in a week. 
Is Baron Brunow called to account for his imposition, or 
Russia for her act? No ! The Minister, as we have seen, 
hastens to announce to Russia that he has " nothing to say I" 

Sir Stratford Canning nevertheless goes on writing : — 

" The signal continued successes obtained by the Hun- 
garians in Transylvania and the Ban at are attended with 
consequences which threaten to compromise the Porte's neu- 
trality) and to expose its adjacent provinces to the calamities 
of war. In addition to the number of private refugees who 
have poured into Serbia and Wallachia, it is known that 
General Puchner's army, to the amount of 12,000 men, has 
again sought refuge in the latter Principality. 

" This near approach, or rather actual presence, of a danger 
long foreseen and pointed out, has afforded me an opportunity, 
which I have not neglected, of again urging the Porte to 
maintain its neutrality in a more steady and efficient manner. 
My repeated communications upon the subject with Aali 
Pasha have not been wholly fruitless." 

Lord Palmerston replies on the 2d of July : — 

" Her Majesty's Government entirely approve the language 
which you describe yourself in it to have held to the Porte, 
with the view of inducing it to maintain a strict neutrality in 
regard to the contest now going on in Hungary. The Porte 
ought for its oivn sake to maintain and assert the neutrality 
of the Turkish territory, as far as it is able to do so, tvithout 
coming into hostile collision with its stronger neighbours" 

Sir S. Canning had fancied that he was able to force his 
Government by committing it. He is now told to take 
care how he compromises Turkey. 



120 



HUNGARY. 



Stronger neighbours ! Austria defeated and requiring 
Russia's aid — Russia forced to bring up her last resources ;* 
the Hungarian armies still unsurrendered : — a single move- 
ment of the Turks in advance taking the Russians in the 
rear calling the Cossacks and the Poles to independence, — 
this is the story of Poland over again. 

When charged in the House of Commons with having 
stopped the preparations of Sweden, Turkey, and Persia, to 
support Poland, and with having rejected the proposals of 
Austria and France to the same effect, he answered ("1st of 
March, 1848), " I saved them from a useless and a fatal step, 
for Russia was stronger than Sweden, stronger than Turkey, 
stronger than Persia, as she was stronger than Poland. 5 ' 
Of course, it was to be inferred, though it was not stated, that 
she was also stronger than Austria, and stronger than Prance : 
she was so, but it was by his means. The argument, how- 
ever, was An aggregate of strength is on accumulation of 
weakness : by this argument fell, first Poland, and then 
Hungary, — the fall of the one prepared the way for the 
fall of the other : — they have been laid prostrate not only 
by the same logic, but by the same logician. 

I have already mentioned the mission of a Hungarian 
agent to Constantinople : — the circumstances, as they were 
related to me, respecting it are too remarkable to omit : — if 
true, they require to be known ; and if false, contradicted. 

His arrival, I have been informed, was hailed with delight 
by the party in the Divan for war, who, though not strong 
enough to carry such a decision, were able to obtain not only 
that communication should be opened with him, but also 
that practical aid should be afforded to the Hungarians by a 
supply of arms, and by suggesting to them the occupation 
of the fortress of Orshova, which, standing on an island 
of the Danube where it breaks through the chain of the 

* A month later he himself writes : " The whole disposable 

FORCE OE THE EuSSIAN EMPIRE HAS BEE> T BEOLGKBT LP TO TAKE 
PART 11S THIS WAB." 



TUEKISH NEUTRALITY. 



121 



Carpathians, is the Padlock of Hungary on the side of TYalla- 
chia, and which, if held by the Hungarians, would have pre- 
vented the entrance of the Eussian troops, and so far preserved 
Turkey's honour and " Neutrality." A person of character 
and distinction was therefore selected to communicate with 
the agent, who, without circumlocution, informed him that 
200,000 stands of arms would be landed on the left bank 
of the Danube, which the Hungarians would pay for in raw 
produce ; and further, that the fortress of Orshova was at 
that moment occupied by only a few troops. The Envoy 
rushed to communicate this unexpected success to the British 
Ambassador, who, in his well-known zeal for Hungary, dis- 
dained to be outstripped, offered to place England in the 
position which Turkey was about to occupy, and named an 
English house at Constantinople (Messrs. Hanson) for the 
management of the speculation. The agent rushed back 
again to inform his Turkish friends of his " golden achieve- 
ment" (J'ai fait une affaire d'or), and to his astonishment 
perceived that his joy was not shared ; the Turkish Govern- 
ment instantly withdrew its proposals, within three days it 
was called to account by the Eussian and Austrian Embassies, 
and of course no muskets were shipped from the Thames. 

These facts I give as I have received them ; I have them 
under no pledge of secrecy. Certain it is that at this period 
rumours were generally spread of arms to be furnished by 
Turkey to the Hungarians, and of her being on the point of 
declaring in their favour. The name of the agent is Mr. 
Browne, cousin of Lord Stanley of Alderley. 

When the affair is quite over, a day after the demand of 
Extradition has been despatched fromWarsaw,LordPalmerston 
indulges in a safe epigram on Turkish Neutrality, which he 
transmits to the agitated consul at Bucharest : — 

" I have to observe to you that the laws of neutrality 
require that equal measures should be meted out to both of 
the contending parties % and that either both or neither should 
be allowed to enter and to make use of the Turkish territory." 

6 



122 



HUNGARY. 



This is the "Neutrality" of the Dardanelles — all nations 
are equally excluded^ but the Russians are inside. 

There now remained only to exchange the congratulatory 
notes between Downing Street and the Bedford Hotel on 
the restoration of " order and peace and so closes one 
chapter of the " union of England and Russia to maintain 
the peace of the world."* 

* Declaration of Lord Durham. 



123 



CHAPTER IV. 

Extradition of Refugees. 

Twenty days after the offer of Mediation has reached 
Vienna, Sir Stratford Canning writes (28th August). 

" To-day, the Austrian Minister has presented a strong 
official note demanding the extradition of all refugees, without 
entering into any distinction of offences. 

" In point of fact the Porte's neutrality has been sacrificed 
in a far greater degree to the military operations of Eussia 
and the unfortunate necessities of Austria than to any 
partiality for a people having many traditional claims to 
their sympathy and goodwill, &c. Under these circum- 
stances i" only anticipate your lordship's opinion, when I 
submit that the Ottoman ministers are fairly entitled to sup- 
port in continuing to carry out c a principle 5 [what principle, 
— neutrality, or its sacrifice?] which it has been my duty, and 
to all appearance that of General Aupick also, to inculcate. 55 

Any negotiations with respect to this matter had to be 
earned on in London with the Representative of Austria, or 
at all events at Vienna ; and if anything was to be done not 
a moment had to be lost. The Despatch reached London on 
the 9th of September. The matter was one which presented 
not the slightest difficulty of judgment. I have already 
stated the case ; not only were the Treaties clear, but they 
were precedents in point. The intelligence had reached 
London long before this communication of Sir Stratford 
Canning ; the former demand had „ been expedited from 
Warsaw on the 14th of August, as from Vienna news could 
reach London in half the time that it took to travel to 
Constantinople, the demand must have been known to Lord 
Palmerston before it could be so to Sir Stratford Canning. 



124 



HUNGARY. 



If not, of what earthly use can Ambassadors be ? Still even 
Sir Stratford Canning's communication is left unanswered 
for thirteen days, and then not a single line is addressed to 
Vienna, — the reply reaches Constantinople after the matter 
has been settled at St. Petersburgh. 

This single statement disposes of the whole case. The 
" bottleholding" is simply reduced to being out of the way. 
It was not for nothing that Kossuth said and repeated so 
often, "Read the Blue Books !" But tire difficulty was to 
find readers. Of what avail would be the publication of 
logarithms for a Nation that did not understand arithmetic ? 
No one in England studies Diplomacy, or knows anything of 
diplomatic action, and then they are knocked down with 
" Blue Books." The contents are nothing, the volume and 
cover everything. It suffices then to say, " Take my word, 
or — read that." No one knows better than the English 
Minister that the printing of ostensible Despatches is not 
the way to enlighten a Parliament or instruct a Nation, and 
that for that purpose explanation and exposition are re- 
quired, and not precisely of that nature with which a 
Finsbury deputation is content. Here are the words he 
once used when in opposition : — 

"We should know what have been the principles upon 
which our Government has acted, — what has been the spirit 
in which the influence of England has been exerted, — what 
objects have been aimed at, and by what means we have 
sought to attain them." 

These words were uttered in leading an opposition against 
the Government of which Lord Aberdeen was Foreign 
Secretary, because it was not sufficiently Russian ! A man 
must know what is right, in order systematically to prac- 
tise what is wrong. 

"I arrived in Turkey, a few days after the demand of 
Extradition was made. I was confidentially informed of it 
by one of the local governors intimately connected with high 
Personages, who all considered war imminent, and urged me 



EXTRADITION OF EEFUGEES. 125 



to proceed without delay to Constantinople. My answer 
was — < There is not the slightest chance of war. The demand 
is a feint. The real point is elsewhere.' 

I returned in five or six weeks to the same place, and 
the same Functionary was again the first to announce to me 
an approaching settlement ; and I then explained as follows, 
the reasons for my opinion which I refused to give on a 
former occasion, which was that the Sultan could not surren- 
der the Eefugees, and Austria and Eussia were destitute 
of power to force him to do so. I had brought a Paris 
Caricature, representing the President as a Bear's Cub, and 
placed it before him. * You mean,' said he, 'that a quarrel 
is got up to throw dust in the eyes of the Parisians.' ' 

This Functionary had no difficulty in comprehending and 
admitting the necessity in which Eussia stood of disguising 
from the people of Europe, the collusion with herself of their 
Governments ; but it was with difficulty that he admitted, 
and never would have done so, unless in consequence of the 
result, her poweiiessness, even when backed by Austria, to 
attack the Ottoman territory. It is most strange how nations 
not diplomatic, will mistake their strength and weakness. Here 
Turkey after the Herculean effort of creating an army of 
300,000 men, and filled from frontier to frontier with indig- 
nation in which there was no distinction between Mussulman 
and Christian, believes that it owes its protection from a 
danger which never existed, not to this real strength of 
mind and body, but to a Foreign protection which never was 
given ; whilst Europe, being unconscious of the existence of 
this army and this feeling, attributes the same result to an 
exercise of its own power, with the "Blue Books" in its hand 
which prove that no such power was ever exercised. Suffice 
it to say, that if Eussia invaded the Tartarian wilds included 
in the Chinese Empire, she would only sacrifice an Army, and 
she has never committed such a folly ; but had she in the 
month of September, 1849, sent an army across the Danube, 
it is her Existence that she would have sacrificed. These are the 



12G 



HUNGARY. 



grounds upon which I treated with calculated scorn, justified 
by the result, the pretended alarming complication in re- 
ference to the Refugees ; and whether I am ri^ht or wronsr in 
assuming that the object of it was to enable Louis Napoleon 
to wind his horn and blow a blast of simulated defiance, at 
all events I must be right in the assertion, that the object 
which the Russian Cabinet had in view, was some other than 
that which was professed. 

The pretence of having given support to Turkey is based 
not upon the act or declaration of the British Government, 
which it was impossible that it should be, since none existed, 
but upon opinions and words of Sir Stratford Canning ; 
who was not kept at Constantinople without an object, that 
of effectually disguising by his opinions the purposes of his 
chief, of affording a cloak of his known integrity, while 
at the same time removing from Parliament an inconvenient 
Critic. 

On the 3d of September, he writes as follows : — 

" On grounds of humanity not unmixed with considerations 
affecting the Porte's character and future policy, I have not 
hesitated to advise a decided resistance to the demand of 
Extradition. I have further endeavoured to dissuade the 
Turkish. Ministers from pledging themselves to any measure 
of restraint, not clearly prescribed by the terms of Treaties, 
and from contracting any engagement not leaving a certain 
latitude of action for the future." 

Next day, Prince Radzevil arrives with the autograph letter 
of the Emperor, not given in the "Blue Books." It is as 
follows : — 

" The leading principles of the Alliance between the two 
Empires, and which have been signalised so strikingly by 
the Ottoman authorities on the Danube in their steps against 
the gangs of Magyars which threw themselves on the Ottoman 
territory, give me the most intimate conviction that Y. M. 
will recommend a question which I have much at heart to the 
most serious attention of your Ministry. Such is the object 



EXTRADITION OF REFUGEES. 127 



of the representations with which I have entrusted my 
Representative at Constantinople, relative to some Polish 
Refugees who, having been guilty of high treason against my 
Government, have lately taken so criminal a part in the 
events which have ravaged Hungary. 

" With the sincere desire that no cloud may rise between the 
two Empires, I attach a peculiar value to the solution of 
this affair, fully confident that the representations of M.Titoff 
will find a favourable reception with your Majesty. I request 
you to accept the assurance of the feelings of high considera- 
tion and inviolable attachment, with which I am 

" Your Majesty's good Brother, 

"Nicolas." 

The French Ambassador sends in haste to inform Sir S. 
Canning of the menacing nature of these communications, 
and Sir Stratford, in his Despatch of the 5th of September, 
mentions that the Internuncio was to have the next morning 
an audience of the Sultan to obtain an assurance that the 
Refugees should be " interne" and " surveille." Observe that 
this is on the fifth of September. He goes onto state, " there 
is no indication of a change in the intentions of the Porte 
that " the impression of every one is, that the Porte is placed 

in a most painful and dangerous dilemma the result of 

its present isolation. . . . The ultimate issue will depend 
upon the prospect of support from England and France. 55 * 

* The complete sentence is as follows : — " In the meantime there is 
no indication of a change in the intentions of the Porte, though the 
serious, not to say alarming, nature of the position is deeply felt. 
The Sultan's firmness will, however, be put to a severe trial, and so 
will that of his enlightened Minister ; nor can I pretend to say what 
counsels will ultimately prevail. The first impression of every one 
is, that the Porte is placed in a most painful and dangerous dilemma, 
between the conflicting sentiments of honour and humanity on the 
one side, and of apprehensions, the natural result of its present 
isolation, on the other. The resource of an appeal to Europe may 
sustain it for the present : but the ultimate issue will naturally 
depend upon the prospect of support from England and France." 



128 



HUNGARY. 



Between the 5th and the 6th of September, when Prince 
Radzevil took his departure, discussions which took place, 
were regularly communicated to Sir S. Canning, and by him 
transmitted home. 

Now before the documents were published, and when the 
English Government was taking credit for having supported 
Turkey, a credit irreconcileable with the concession of internal 
surveillance which the Porte had made, it boldly extricated 
itself by a falsehood and a charge — it charged the Turkish 
Government with concealing from it these communications. 

Prince Radzevil came to demand a "Yes," or a "No," in 
eight and forty hours : he adopted towards the Sultan forms 
the most offensive, language the most haughty. The Porte 
extricated itself from the dilemma with that dexterity which 
it always evinces when forced into action : it told the Envoy 
that the answer would be given at St. Petersburgh, to which 
place an Ambassador of the Sultan was already on his way. An 
autograph letter from the Sultan to the Emperor was presented 
to him, which he declined to take charge of. 

The Porte had now definitively taken its stand in its 
"isolation," "without the support of England and France," 
and consequently, whether that support did, or did not arrive, 
it equally had to bear the consequences. It hastily called 
up its reserves, and an army of 65,000 men was assembled 
at the capital. Throughout the country, as I can testify, 
(travelling as I was through it at the time), far from the 
doubts or apprehensions which appear to have prevailed in 
higher quarters and to have divided the Ministry, there was 
but one feeling of indignation and confidence : "every male, 
from sixteen to sixty ;" such was the reply received in a 
village when I asked them how many men they would send 
to the Danube. Nor was the Sovereign behind his People : 
when it was told the Sultan that this demand was about to 
be made, he started up and exclaimed : " Shall I, who am 
Master of the Empire, be denied the right of refuge, which 
I cannot refuse to the meanest of my subjects, in the 



EXTRADITION OF REFUGEES. 129 



case even of a culprit? Sooner let the Empire itself 
perish !" 

The die was now cast; the honour or disgrace of the 
course rested alone with the Porte : no despatch had arrived 
from England.* Here is the view of the case as stated by 
Sir Stratford Canning on the 17th of December : — 

"Allow me to add, my lord, that in proportion as I admire 
the courageous firmness with which the Sultan and his 
Government have determined to make this stand in the 
cause of humanity and of the fair rights of honour and 
dignity, against a demand alike objectionable in substance 
and in form, I feel a deepening anxiety for the result of their 
resistance, and for the degree of support which Her Majesty's 
Government and that of France may find themselves at liberty 
to afford, not only in the first instance, but in still graver 
circumstances, should the present partial rupture unfortu- 
nately assume a more serious and menacing character." 

Under this alarm for Turkey and doubts of England, Sir 
S. Canning writes to Admiral Parker, to know whether any 
portion of Her Majesty's squadron was " available for any 
purposes of demonstration ," and whether he was " at liberty, 
without bringing attention on the real object, to place it 

* " It ought never to be forgotten that the peremptory refusal of 
the Sultan to (Mirer up these gallant defenders of a righteous cause 
to the base and merciless vengeance of Austria and Russia, was given 
before he knew whether he should be supported in that refusal by 
the Western Powers of Europe or not* It must be also remembered, 
that the conduct of those Western Powers had not always been such 
as to lead him to the conclusion that they would be sure to assist 
him. Yet he waited not for the arrival of a British fleet in the 
waters of Turkey, nor for any intimation of its approach, but at 
once, without hesitation, decided that the brave sons of liberty who 
craved the protection of Turkish hospitality, should receive it at 
whatever cost. But for this noble act, so worthy of a great Sovereign, 
and of that character which the Turks have always maintained, 
Kossuth would, beyond aU doubt, have been consigned to the same 
ignominious death as Ms fellow-patriot, Louis Batthyanyi." — Letter 
of Lord Dudley Stuart, 

6 4 



130 



HUNGARY. 



at once in somewhat nearer communication with Her Majestx 's 
Embassy ?" but on this communication the impulsive admiral 
did not think fit to move. 

Euad Eftendi arrived at St. Petersburgh, with the autograph 
letter from the Sultan, and had his audience on the 16 th of 
October. The glacial bearing assumed at Constantinople has 
thawed in the more genial climate of the North, and as anti- 
cipated by Lord Ponsonby,* the adjustment of the matter 
experiences no difficulty. 

On the 1 6th October, the British Minister at St. Petersburgh, 
however, was without instructions ; things are so close run that 
on that day he has to announce to Count Nesselrode, that he 
has none, — the orders had been sent to Admiral Parker to sail 
to the Dardanelles ten days before. Now observe the dates : 
the Russian demand of Extradition was dated Warsaw, 14th 
of August : the Austrian, was made at Constantinople, on the 
25th of August ; the Despatch announcing it arrived in Lon- 
don on the 9th of September : the whole case was detailed 
in Sir Stratford Canning's Despatch of the 3d September, 
and its enclosures : the final proceedings, including the 
application of the Turkish Government, both through its own 
Ambassador, and through Sir Stratford Canning, together 
with the rupture of diplomatic relations with Austria and 
Russia, reached London on the 1st of October; on the 3d, Lord 
Paimerston was in possession of the departure of Euad 
Effendi for St. Petersburgh, If time and distance interfered 
to prevent his action at Constantinople, nothing prevented the 
transmission of his decision to St. Petersburgh. He now 
further delays for six days. A thunderingDespatch is then writ- 
ten so as to arrive the day after the settlement, and, of course, 
never to be presented. These are his explicit words in the 
House — " It is due, however, to the Russian Government to 
say, that the day before our friendly representation reached 
St. Petersburgh, the Russian Government had stated, that it 

* "I can assure you that there will be nothing worse than dis- 
satisfaction on the part of Austria. No strong measure will be 
taken." — Lord Ponsonhy, 2d October. 



EXTRADITION OE REFUGEES. 131 



no longer insisted on the demand for Surrender, but consented 
to the alternative of Expulsion."* 

Now clearly the matter was ended. Why then despatch 
the squadron ? If not settled with Euad Effendi, then the 
question lay between England and Russia, and a declaration 
of war must have followed ; and the squadron would have 
to be recalled home for the Baltic. f The fact, however, 
of the sailing of the squadron was not communicated, 
ostensibly, to St. Petersburgh on the 6th of October. 

Now supposing any mischance had occurred, and the 
arrival of the Despatch on the 6th of October had been 
hastened a few hours, or the arrangement of Fuad Effendi 
retarded ; and the parties had thus been brought up with 
doubled fists, a show of something more than "bottle- 
holding" would have been required. How convenient to have 
the squadron got out of the way ! This would not have been 
the first time when the sacrifice of professed purposes and 
important interests has been excused on the pretext of the 
employment elsewhere of the disposable British naval force. 

This naval demonstration enabled Russia to regain her 
haughty position, compromised by her apparent surrender, 
and Count Nesselrode overwhelmed the trembling English 

* 7th February, 1850. 

t Viscount Palmerston to Viscount Ponsonhy. 

" Foreign Office, November 2, 1849. 

" My Lord, — With reference to your Excellency's Despatch of the 
21st ultimo, reporting the feelings entertained by the Austrian Minis- 
ters with respect to what they term the menace made by England and 
France, I have to point out to your Excellency that a movement of 
Her Majesty's squadron to the upper end of the Mediterranean 
cannot be considered as a threat against Austria. If the squadron 
had moved up the Adriatic and had taken post opposite to Venice 
or Trieste, the case might have been different. 

I am, &c. Palmeeston." 

The Despatch to which this is a reply is not given. 



132 



HUNGARY. 



Bepresentative at St. Petersburgh with words of contumely 
and scorn, restraining his laughter, he said : — 

" I am an old man. I hope to end my days in peace : I 
have laboured to preserve it for Europe ; never did I expect 
that it would be the Government of England, which by an in- 
solent violation of solemn compact, should again cast upon 
the world the Torch of Discord. But Eussia is prepared ; 
strong in her position and rights, strong in her power and 
in her conscience, she accepts a defiance, and lays upon 
your head the responsibility and the consequences." 

It was this demonstration that paralysed the willing efforts 
of General Lamoriciere, and forced Fuad Effendi to sur- 
render the advantages of the growing indignation throughout 
Europe against Eussia, and admiration for Turkey. 

Sir Stratford Canning, who under different circumstances 
had suggested that the squadron should have been brought 
to the neighbourhood of the Embassy, no sooner learns that 
Admiral Parker has violated the atrocious Treaty of July 13, 
1341, by entering the Dardanelles, than he implores him to 
depart. He addresses him in the strain" of a Guebre, depre- 
ciating Ahriman : — 

" With the deference which is due to your superior judg- 
ment, I would venture to suggest as the more advisable 
course, that you should leave your present anchorage, unless 
requested by the Forte to stay, and transfer the squadron to 
some neighbouring station, whence it may return, should its 
valuable services be wanted again, without any inconvenient 
delay." 

This is on the 4th of November, but is not given in the 
" Blue Book" at that date. Before it is introduced his 
Despatch of the 5th, mentioning simply the removal of the 
squadron from the exposed situation of Bisika Bay to a 
preferable anchorage. Next comes one to Lord Blomfield 
rather more explicit, mentioning that the Russian Minister 



EXTRADITION OF REFUGEES. 



133 



has intimated to him the embarrassment thence accruing, as 
now concessions were rendered impossible. Next follow a 
variety of Despatches, five of which are from Lord Palmerston : 
one of the l\th of November announced the termination of 
the question, and expresses the regret of her Majesty's Go- 
vernment that Sir W. Parker should have taken this step. It 
is after all this preparatory matter that Sir Stratford Canning's 
Despatch is inserted. In its proper order it would have been 
at p. 66; it is removed to p. 71.* 

On the retreat of the squadron, a concentric fire assails 
the Foreign Office. These Notes and Despatches occupy 
nearly one half of the printed correspondence, and cast the 
reader adrift on currents and counter-currents, leaving him 
stranded on the grave responsibility assumed by the English 
Government of risking war with Russia, and then floating 
him off on its dexterity in having without that contingency 
rescued Turkey 1 

" Now in the political world grave questions are weighed 
in the balance of common sense, which between Cabinets 
sincerely lovers of peace is nothing else than that of good 

faitnr 

This from the correspondent of the Bedford Hotel. 

I have purposely left unnoticed Lord Palmerston's two 
first Despatches, because like the offer of Mediation at Vienna, 
and the friendly remonstrance to St. Petersburgh, they were 
never used. 

That of the 24th of September, placed in front of the 
Correspondence, justified in all respects Sir S. Canning's 
opinions, and incloses an extract (as if it were not to be had 
at Constantinople), from the Treaty of Belgrade. But 
then comes this sentence. " The utmost that could be 
demanded would be that they should not be allowed to 
reside permanently in the Turkish empire." This is the 
rider to a proposition that no demand can be made, 
and is that with which Russia herself closes : — this 

* This is no novel manoeuvre ; I have had already to point out 
its employment in reference to the " Maine Boundary," and the 
" Correspondence with Persia." 



134 



HUNGARY. 



communication ought to have been made at Vienna : it is 
never communicated even to the Austrian Internuncio, at 
Constantinople, and there is not a word to Lord Ponsonbv, 
notwithstanding his reiterated assurance that Austria was 
not in earnest.* 

We now come to the last stage — the bevy of Despatches, 
which, on the 6th of October were discharged towards the 
four winds of heaven. 

The Treaties between Eussia and Turkey stipulate for 
refugees, the alternatives of Expulsion or Surrender. The 
Austrian Treaties, those of Surrender or " Internment." 

To Vienna, the English Minister says : — 

" The Sultan is not bound to comply with the application 
made by the Austrian Minister." 

Nevertheless, he has duties of " good neighbourhood to 
fulfil!"! 

To St. Petersburgh he says : — 

" Now her Majesty's Government readily admit that the 
stipulations of that article entitle the Eussian Government 
to make the application which they hate made; but her 
Majesty's Government would beg to submit, for the friendly 

* " It is to be observed, however, that the demand of the Austrian 
Government was made before the surrender of Gorgey to the Eussian 
General-in-Chief was known at Vienna, and the demand seems to 
have referred principally to the Hungarian detachment, which was 
driven into Wallachia from Orshova, on the 17 th of August; and it 
is to be expected that now that the war is over, a demand of this 
kind will no longer be pressed, but if it is pressed, it ought certainly 
not to be complied with." 

t " But the Sultan has duties of good neighbourhood to fulfil toivards 
Austria; and those duties require that he should not permit his 
territory to be made use of as a place of shelter, from which com- 
munications should be carried on for the purpose of disturbing the 
tranquillity of any of the States which compose the Austrian Empire. 

" The Sultan is therefore bound to prevent these Polish refugees 
from hovering upon the frontiers of Hungary or Transylvania; and 
he ought to require them either to leave the Turkish territory, or to 
take up their residence in some part of the interior of his dominions, 
where they may have no means of communicating with the dis- 
contented in the Austrian States." 



EXTRADITION OF EEFUGEES. 



135 



consideration of the Government of Eussia, that this same 
article distinctly gives to the Sultan an alternative which he 
is equally entitled to choose ; for by the stipulations of that 
article each of the contracting parties is at liberty either to 
surrender refugees, being subjects of the other party, or to 
expel them from its own territory. It is clear, therefore, 
that the Sultan is not bound by treaty to comply with the 
application made to him by the Eussian Minister at Con- 
stantinople for the surrender of the Polish refugees; and 
that he would fulfil to the very letter the obligations of the 
Treaty, by requiring those Polish refugees to depart from 
his dominions." 

To explore these mysteries would require a Torch, and to 
expose them a Volume. 

In the Despatch to Turkey, there is a general preface, in 
which, on the one hand, the obligation of Turkey to comply 
with the demands appear to be denied ; and, on the other, 
the separate conditions of the Austrian and Eussian 
Treaties are mingled together ; so that the stipulation of the 
Eussian Treaty, namely, Expulsion, is made to apply to the 
Hungarians. The Despatch to Austria is a direct contra- 
diction of the Despatch to Eussia ; the Despatch to Eussia a 
nullification of that to Austria. By the first, the Sultan is 
" not bound by Treaty by the second he is " bound by 
Treaty," as he must be if only " entitled to choose" between 
two alternatives. Both of those views are opposed as pole to 
pole to the Despatch of the 24th September, in which it is 
stated that the article of the Treaty of Belgrade (to which the 
others are analogous), " obviously relates to cases of a very 
different kind from that of the war just ended," . . . and that 
" such officers and soldiers cannot be deemed to be the persons 
intended to be described by these expressions, or e cette sortes 
des gens, 5 or to be classed with 'voleurs et brigands.' " 

Here are then a series of distinct propositions, by means 
of which the position which the English Ambassador had 
taken up at Constantinople is totally reversed, being first 
adopted and re-echoed by the Minister in London ; then by a 



136 



HUXGAEY. 



series of appended conditions, transpositions, injunctions, 
modifications, and inferences, the Sultan is declared bound 
by the very compacts which Sir S. Canning and the French 
Ambassador, in reply to a formal demand, had declared he 
was not bound. 

This Despatch, timed so as not to arrive at St. Peters- 
burgh, till one day, as Lord Palmerston states — till two days, 
as appears by the Blue Book — after the settlement with Fuad 
Effendi, is also timed to arrive at Constantinople two days 
before the arrival of the news from St. Peter sburgh. Sir 
S. Canning and the Turkish Government are consequently 
in ecstacy, and believe with the public of Europe, that it 
is the backing of England that saved Kossuth from being 
hung, and the Sultan from being deposed. 

To this English friendly remonstrance, Count Xesselrorie 
replies by declaring that he could never admit " the prin- 
ciple of foreign interference in the relations of Eussia and 
Turkey." This is the result of your brave demonstration at 
the Dardanelles ! 

It will have been seen that the Hungarians were exposed 
to the alternative of " Internment," the Poles of " Expulsion." 
The Hungarians are shut up at Kutayah. But what 
happens to the Poles ? Eussia's demands could only extend 
to the Polish refugees from Poland, who had already dwelt 
twenty years in Turkey with 'French passports. 

It was not then from Turkey that they were to be de- 
manded, but from France ; and France, who is with England 
resisting the demands upon Turkey, surrenders them ! 

No secret was made of a private letter from General 
Lahitte, then French Minister for Foreign Affairs, to Count 
Nesselrode, in which he entreats that minister to accept the 
concession which France had made as sufficient proof of the 
absence of all sympathy with Turkey, and thus spare the 
French Government the humiliation of their immediate Ex- 
pulsion. He only asks for delay until " the affair has 
blown over."* 

* I recollect this phrase in the letter " Si la Turquie ne £ execute 
pas" 



EXTRADITION OF REFUGEES. 



137 



As to steps taken by England for the liberation of the 
refugees, there were absolutely none during eighteen months; 
that is to say, till April, 1851. Why she acted then I have 
already explained. Kossuth had fallen into the fangs of 
Mazzini. 

Had the English Government been with Turkey, the 
detention of the exiles could not have endured one hour; 
if their subsequent liberation was by its influence, it would 
have been effected eighteen months before. A communication 
was at an earlier period made to the Porte by the British 
Ambassador, and believed by the Hungarians and their 
friends to have been to urge their liberation. But it turned 
out afterwards to be for their transfer from Kutayah to some 
other place. 

It was at the time a common remark at Constantinople, 
that Austria received no backing in her endeavours to 
retain them from her Ally. In fact, the interests of Kussia 
and Austria were now opposed : Austria dreaded — Russia 
desired — revolution. 

If it stood alone, this general belief in Europe, after the 
publication of the c Blue Books, 5 would be utterly incon- 
ceivable. To its infatuation there is no bounds : they are 
equally incapable of disbelieving a falsehood, and of believing 
a fact. This reflection is forced unon me by a debate which 
occurs as these pages are passing through the press, in which 
Lord Dudley Stuart (5th May, 1853) speaks of the " glorious 
course taken by the Noble Lord for procuring their release/ 5 
and this was a speech in which he charges that Noble Lord 
with having pursued with respect to them in England, a 
course the very reverse, and again, as usual, ends with the 
" expression of his satisfaction at hearing the statement of 
the Noble Lord. 5 ' A statement in the House of Commons ! 

I have already quoted Kossuth's judgment of the con- 
nection of the Diplomacy of Great Britain with the fail of 
Hungary. I must now give the first impressions made upon 
him by the perusal of the "Blue Book' 5 in reference to the 
case of the refugees. The letter indeed presents in small 



138 



HUNGAEY. 



compass the whole matter, and it was the perusal of it which 
first induced me to look into the documents. 

" As another gift to the fatal anniversary, I got this very 
day a letter giving me charming notices out of your Par- 
liament's "Blue Books" — very charming indeed. There I 
have the pleasure to read the Despatch to Lord Ponsonby 
(6th October, 1849), where my Lord the Secretary of the 
State for the Foreign Affairs of Her Majesty is the first who 
professes the Sultan to have duties of good neighbourhood 
to fulfil towards the States which compose the Austrian empire IS 
I wonder how his Lordship is at home with history, and 
chiefly its diplomatic parts, — how he has to give the sanction 
of England to the incorporation of Hungary, whose inde- 
pendence was in the ISth century guaranteed by England 
itself, — to give the sanction of England to the incorporation 
of Hungary by Eussian arms, — but no ! not arms, — by 
Eussian diplomacy. To be sure, his Lordship must have 
given like warm recommendations to Austria and Eussia, en- 
gaging them to fulfil the duties of good neighbourhood towards 
the Sultan — proof of the incessant revolts stirred up in 
Bosnia and Bulgaria by Austrian agents and Eussian gold 
— proof of it, Milosh, who is pretty near to upset poor 
Karageorgievich — in Servia. A pretext is wanted for the 
non-evacuation of Moldo-Wallachia, and for the occupation 
of Servia. You will have the pretext, be sure of it. 

"I read with equal pleasure in the same Despatch, that the 
Sultan is bound to give us our residence in some part -of the 
Interior where we may have no means of communicating 
with the discontented in the Austrian States. A fine cir- 
cumscription of our Kutayah Casarna, is it not ? 

" There is still more to be found. The instructions to be 
given to Sir Parker by the Lords Commissioners of the 
Admiralty, whence we learn that the gallant admiral was not 
directed to support the Sultan in his generous opposition to 
the insolent pretensions of Eussia and Austria : but that he 
was directed to take us on board if, and only if, he should 



EXTKADITIOX OE REFUGEES. 



139 



be invited by the Sultan, through Sir S. Canning to take up 
his squadron to Constantinople to the very purpose of giving 
us a fine beefsteak on board an English man-of-war in the 
Bosphorus ; a thing rather a little difficult, as we -happened 
at the very time to be somewhat closely guarded at Widdin, 
on the northern verge of Bulgaria. Of course, Sir S. 
Canning did not invite us, and so the formidable squadron 
had nothing better to do than to hoist sails for Malta. 

" Well, after all, the 1 Blue Book' taught me nothing new. 
I have known this by heart long ago. The only thing I 
would be anxious to know is, how Earaday or Liebig would 
find out the chemical affinity between these Despatches and 
the Declaration of his Lordship in the House of Commons, 
that he was very much dissatisfied with the issue of the 
refugee question, but that he could not help, as the Sultan 
made the offer to give us a residence in the interior without 
any previous knowledge, not to say, approbation of the 
British Ministry. As also the chemical affinity between Sir 
W. Parker's instructions and the compliments on the energy 
of his Lordship having sent the gallant Admiral to support 
the Sultan in our behalf (see Mr. .Roebuck's Vote of Con- 
fidence Motion), and the toast of Admiral Xapier at the 
diplomatic dinner, after compliments which his Lordship 
acknowledged with pride. 

{i But enough; it is with a bitter smile that I write these 
lines — you will excuse me. I am a poor exile, Sir, and 
there are mighty men who are able to do me more wrong in 
a day than I can digest in a year. Eor myself I would not 
care, but for my poor country, which I might yet help to 
become once more, if not great and glorious — greatness is 
relative, and glory is vain — but free." 

That the whole was a concerted game may be inferred from 
this alone, that Erance and England were acting in concert. 
What I have above stated in reference to the Polish 
Eefugees, can leave no shadow of doubt as to the collusion of 



140 



HUNGARY. 



Louis Napoleon and the Cabinet of Eussia ; but that fact * 

does not stand alone ; what influence, what coin placed him 
in the Presidential chair ? By whom was concerted the coup 
d'etat of the 2d of December ? It was recently mentioned 
by the Times Correspondent from Paris, that he had avowed 
his connection with Russia to a Republican Deputation, which 
came to him from the Continent. It is impossible to conceive 
a country in more absolute dependence than France. Russia 
can knock down the Puppet she has set up. In 1848, M. 
Tocqueville, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, met arguments 
urged by a Deputation of the Opposition with these words : — 
" Gentlemen, remember there are the Cossacks !" The French 
Ambassador at Constantinople has not hesitated to speak of 
the Russian Army as the Ally of his Government against the 
"Red Republic." The French Consul, at Belgrade, when 
applied to for support against his Russian colleague, said, "You 
seem not to be aware that my President has no other support 
than the Emperor of Russia." At the period in question, 
when he was expelling the Poles from Paris and sacrificing 
them at Constantinople, and at the same time inculcating 
"Turkish Neutrality and urging resistance to the demanded 
Extradition," Louis Napoleon had to dread the Revolutionists 
on the one side, and on the other a formidable Pretender in 
the Comte de Chambord. Russia had both in her hands, and 
was parading her support of the latter : he was held not 
only by his fears, but by his hopes ; — she could make him 
Emperor, or cast him into the mire ; we have, therefore, 
general grounds and special acts, which prove the collusion of 
France, and render anything else impossible. All this is 
known to the English Minister. What then is his position 
between France as his confidante and Russia as his antagonist ? 
If it be a Comedy played by France, is it very monstrous to 
suppose that it is also a Comedy played by England ? 

In fact if France had been really acting against Russia, 
would England have been acting with her ? "VYe have seen 
what happened in 1806: what again happened in 1831: 



EXTRADITION OP REFUGEES. 141 



and what again in 1839, when Marshal Soult really 
did resolve to send a squadron through the Dardanelles. 
M. Dillon Barrott once used these words, " The events of 
half a century prove that, whenever France has decided on 
taking a course contrary to Russia, she is certain to find 
England against her. 35 

So soon as by Russian aid Hungary was pacified, Hun- 
garian regiments were sent to the Baltic (where Russia could 
not as yet show herself) in furtherance of the design upon the 
Crown of Denmark. We are thus conducted by the chain of 
events, no less than by the limits of geography, from the West 
to the North. 



143 



THE NORTH. 



Part I.— SCANDINAVIA. 
Part II. — THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



" It was quite enough in delivering Finland to the Russians to 
have afforded them the means of a step in advance towards the 
Sound, as a point from which they will not he less menacing 
at a future day, when, the Russian Colossus with one foot on 
the Dardanelles and another on the Sound, will make the whole 
world his slave, and liberty will have fled to America. How- 
ever chimerical all this may seem now to narrow minds, it will 
one day be a cruel reality : for Europe, unwisely divided like 
the towns of Greece in presence of the Kings of Macedonia, 
will have probably the same lot''— Thiers. 



144 



These Chapters were written and partly appeared in 1842 
and 1844. I preserve their original form because of the 
anticipation which they contain of events which have sub- 
sequently come to light, — the best proof of the accuracy of 
the views put forward, and the best disproof of the events 
being the result of mere chance. 



PART t 

SCANDINAVIAN KINGDOMS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Internal Constitution. 

^YHILE the attention of Europe has been fixed on the Pro- 
gress of .Russia in the East, it has overlooked regions within 
her own bounds. This Empire, and its more colossal Am- 
bition threaten, however, the fishermen of the icy North 
as well as the shepherds of the Torrid zone. Within a few 
hours' sail of our coasts lies a richer and an easier prey 
than the plains of Zungaria and the valleys of the Oxus. 
Three kingdoms still intervene between her frontiers and 
the ocean, and inclose between the arms of two promon- 
tories the Euxine of the North. Their shores are washed 
with the very waters which guard our island ; they are in- 
habited by the races from whom we have drawn our origin 
— who speak almost a common language with ourselves — 
with whom we are most nearly connected by the ties of faith, 
in addition to those same political interests which have asso- 
ciated us with the people and kingdoms of the East. 

DENMAEK. 

It was the original Constitution of this Government which 
was transplanted to England ; its laws have descended from 
a monarch who was also king of England. This of all the 
Teutonic kingdoms is the one in which the power of the 

7 



146 



SCANDINAVIA, 



Aristocracy raised itself highest, and spread its roots deepest, 
extinguishing the authority of the Crown, and repressing 
the energy of the People. It had, however, undergone a 
change, which brought it into close affinity with the Aris- 
tocracies of the Sclavonic nations. Nobility, unrestricted to the 
tenure of land, was perpetuated by descent. To it indeed was 
exclusively reserved power, and the faculty of possessing real 
property, but in its excessive expansion it had commingled 
with the nations, and like the Shlachsitz of Poland, was to be 
found in every profession, and in the humblest grades. 

The geographical position, however, of Denmark, its 
unrivalled facilities, amounting almost to a command of the 
trade of the North, raised from parallel causes, though with 
varying effect, a powerful Burgher class, on the same basis 
on which had arisen the Sea Kings of earlier times. The 
descendants of these were now doomed to be displaced by their 
more vigorous though more modest successors. An unfor- 
tunate and unprovoked war with Sweden, in 1657, brought the 
matter to issue; the inability of the nobles to defend the 
state over which they domineered was exhibited in the loss 
of nearly a half of the kingdom, the strength of which was 
thus proved to consist in the capital alone. The burghers 
thus established their right to rule the country they had 
saved ; and consequently at the close of 1660 that remarkable 
revulsion which it has taken three centuries in Europe to 
accomplish, was effected in almost a single day ; the Aris- 
tocracy was put down by the middle classes, and instantly 
that class put itself down before the Crown. Thus was brought 
into existence the celebrated Lex Regia of Denmark, wherein 
the king, Frederick the Third, acting by the authority of the 
nation, declared himself and his successors, each for himself, 
possessed of full, absolute, and despotic power, with legis- 
lative faculties affecting church and state, taxes and troops, 
and constituted responsible under no circumstances to any 
human tribunal, but " to his conscience and to God alone.' 5 * 

* The majority of the king was reduced from twenty-eight to 

fourteen. 



INTERNAL CONSTITUTION. 147 



But by the very care with which Despotism was rendered 
complete, a counterpoise was provided. 

The monarch could dispense with laws no less than enact 
them ; every successive king so found himself unshackled by 
the past, and thus the power was constituted personal and 
not legislative, being limited by the condition of self- 
transmission. This Constitution has proved one of the best, 
if not the best, in Europe, for in fact it may be said to be no 
Constitution at all. Administration, which is so weighty a task 
to modern politicians, is only difficult in consequence of the 
Concentration in the capital of impossible functions. Denmark 
having its ancient local bodies, had only to apprehend new 
laws, and, above all, the existence of a body arrogating to 
itself the right of making them. 

As regards the Central Government, arbitrariness is no 
doubt an evil, but there may be still worse evils, and the worst 
are those that are systematic. Naked absolutism may coerce 
the will, but it does not pervert the judgment of nations, and 
even if it degrades their character, it does not destroy their 
common sense. Under such a system there might be a few 
servile dependents, but there was no multitude of brawling 
patriots. It did not engender the class of politicians, nor 
with them habits of pretence and facilities of imposition. 
There was no fictitious responsibility to destroy the fear of 
consequences, no majorities to cloak schemes of a Cabal — no 
cunning or overbearing associations could instal themselves 
as Ministries — no wavering hallucinations transform them- 
selves into public zeal : there was no permanent lie respecting 
" servants of the crown; 5 ' for all that was done, and in the 
eyes of all, the king was responsible, and being so, the public 
functionaries were in truth his servants. 

It was not, therefore, for special reasons, but on general 
grounds, that with a Constitution the most abominable which 
theoretically could be conceived, Denmark enjoyed contentment 
and well-being, and acquired riches, and, having a national 
character, possessed freedom.* Therefore, could the Danish 

# " From this allusion to the chief articles of the new Constitution, 



148 



SCANDIXATIA. 



Monarch truly declare that " Denmark had no interest in the 
war against France, as the Danish crown had nothing to fear 
from the dissatisfaction of its people." 

The people are, nevertheless, not of one race, nor are they 
under the same laws or governing systems, nor have they 
been united from time out of mind. This harmony is, 
therefore, simply the result of the absence of legislation. 
Each section limited its activity to the bounds of its own 
existence, respected the habits, customs, and laws of its 
neighbours, or, what was better still, never thought upon the 
subject, and when there were troubles it was because of 
passions, not propositions. Denmark Proper constitutes no 
more than three-fifths of the whole monarchy, the remaining 
two-fifths being Holstein, which is German, and Schleswig, 
which is in part German and in part Danish. These Duchies 
possess distinct laws and rights, with their peculiar "Land" 
and " Stadt" Administration : these privileges have been 
maintained during four centuries, no less by their own strength 
than by the interest of the reigning dynasty, the roots of 
which were in the Duchies. Their importance is not only great 
in themselves, but also as linking Denmark to the Continent, 
and superadding so to say, a territorial and military, to its 
own maritime existence. 

When at the close of the fourteenth century the Crowns of 

it will be seen that Frederick arrogated to himself a power which no 
other monarch on earth ever claimed — not even the Czar of Russia. 
Here was boundless, irresponsible, unmitigated despotism, without 
a single provision in favour of the life, the substance, or the liberty 
of any subject, high or low. In China the Emperor is restrained by 
the laws, which he can neither violate, nor change. So it is in 
Thibet ; so in all Mahommedan countries, where the Koran is the 
unchanged and unchangeable law, alike for rulers and people. So 
it was in ancient Persia, in Egypt, in Assyria, in Greece, in Rome. 
So it has been in the great middle age Empires — in Tartary, Mexico, 
Peru. It was reserved for the most limited, and the most insigni- 
ficant (so far as territory and revenues are concerned) king in Europe, 
to establish a despotism such as the world had never seen." — 
Dunham's Denmark^ Sweden, and Norway, v. iii, p. 180-1. 



INTERNAL CONSTITUTION. 



149 



Sweden and of Norway were united with that of Denmark, 
under terms which required that they should be always 
placed upon the same head, Schleswig and Holstein were not 
so united. When under Frederick III the tenure of the 
crown was altered to one of hereditary succession, with the 
admission of females, it was not attempted to introduce the 
same law in the Duchies, where the feudal right of male suc- 
cession was established. 

The separation apprehended on the failure of the present 
direct line arises solely from the supereession of the Salic 
law in Denmark. Eut, by his amplitude of despotic power, 
the King of Denmark may annul that provision. However, 
in an age when the gravest concerns are transacted in secret, 
and the concealed hand is the one that wins, this is not to 
be expected, as a neighbouring power covets the Sound with 
her whole heart. 

Constitutions had been promised to the nations who had 
enabled their sovereigns to overthrow Napoleon — a promise 
which was forgotten for fifteen years, until the people took 
for a time the matter into their own hands. The people of 
Denmark had had no share in this service, had made no such 
demand, and received no such promise. The despotism of 
the other kings of the Continent was by usurpation — the 
despotism of the kings of Denmark was , by law ; yet 
Frederick VI determined to concede to his derm an feof of 
Holstein a Constitution ; but not to make an^ invidious dis- 
tinction, he conceded the same to the remainder of his States. 
It was carried into effect in 1835. 

We have seen an overbearing Aristocracy tranquilly set 
aside; we have seen a powerless king transmuted into an 
absolute one : now we see a Constitution freely conceded to 
the people by that Crown to which its people had before freely 
conceded arbitrary power. 

The authority allowed to the Representative Body was, 
however, no more than Consultative, which, in the circum- 
stances of the country, was a more valuable security than 
that nominally absolute control over the Finances which we 



150 



SCANDINAVIA. 



have seen so unprofitably exercised in the great Constitutional 
Governments. But the value of this Constitution resided in 
there being no general representation, but Provincial Diets — 
— two for the Duchies, and two for the remainder of the 
Monarchy. 

This distinction is of the highest importance in a diplo- 
matic point of view, and it is one regarding which the study 
of former ages (from which alone our mental habits are 
derived, and with the events of which our memories are 
stored) affords us neither maxims nor facts. The great 
change and experiment now in progress, and the conse- 
quences of which can only be evolved in future times, is the 
assimilation of people to people by the process of thought. 
I enter not into its causes, its general character, or abstract 
effects : I point to the facility which it affords for action, 
greater than in other ages could have been acquired by 
armies ; for it is more important in a view to ultimate incor- 
poration, to disorganize a people by its own laws, than to 
prostrate it by external blows, however heavy. If then you 
have at once a spirit of imitation, whether of modes of dress 
or forms of Government, and a vicious maxim afloat, it 
becomes as easy to ruin an empire as to set a fashion. 

Notwithstanding the variety of disorders to which the po- 
litical body is exposed within, and of accidents from without, 
scarcely since the invention of " Constitution, 55 has a grave 
misfortune befallen any people which has not been infected 
with it. The convulsions of Europe, for the last thirty 
years, have sprung out of the agitations of Spain, and those 
agitations were created solely by a surreptitious Constitution : 
Europe might now be tranquil and at rest, if the Spanish 
Constitution had resembled that of Denmark, for then it would 
have restored, instead of destroying, the Cortes of the king- 
doms of the Peninsula. 

It is then to be inferred that Eussia was able to exercise 
in Spain an influence in 1812, which she was not pos- 
sessed of in Denmark till 1835 ; after that country had 
existed for nearly two centuries under a despotism which 



INTERNAL CONSTITUTION. 



151 



has been designated the "disgrace of the human race." 
It has already been remarked by a king of Sweden — 
Gustavus III, that Cf opposition rises constantly upon the 
steps of Russia, in the hatred engendered in the new subjects 
she acquires, and the new neighbours she presses upon ; but 
this resistance is always conquered by the influence she 
manages to obtain over Cabinets at a distance.' 5 This is 
true of Nations no less than Cabinets. 

These Provincial Diets were composed of the Representa- 
tives of three classes — the large landed proprietors, the small 
landed proprietors, and the burghers — following in this 
respect pretty nearly the ancient Constitution of England. 
The members are elected for six years, and they sit only 
once in two years. 

Up to the present time they have justified the confidence 
reposed in them. They commenced with the disordered 
finances, and indeed may be said to have confined themselves 
to that branch. They have obtained the yearly publication 
of a detailed Budget, and within six years the change effected 
by their supervision has been so considerable, that in 1842 
there was a large surplus in the Treasury, which, in 1836, 
had before it the prospect of Bankruptcy. Out of a revenue 
of a million and a half, they have contrived to squeeze a 
Sinking Fund for the extinction of the permanent monstrous 
debt of £12,000,000 sterling. 

The press is entirely free in respect to the discussion of 
home affairs, but under strict surveillance in respect to 
foreign politics : by the most sensible of all evidence, Denmark 
might have known that these are the first of domestic con- 
cerns : she has seen by their means her maritime power 
annihilated, her territory reduced by dismemberment to half 
its size; she is now divided between German and Danish 
parties, trifling as yet, but incipient ; whilst the precariousness 
of the Royal Line opening eventual claims, which bring 
Serfdom as their consequences, casts a gloom over the future 
which reflects itself by anticipation on the heart of every 



152 



SCANDINAVIA. 



Dane.* By the deficiency of this one element of public cha- 
racter and Administration, Denmark is exposed not merely to 
lose the fruits of its internal prosperity, but its very existence 
as an independent Crown and a free People. The favourable 
picture of the present thus encourages no satisfactory prospect 
for the future. There is no country so destitute of precedent 
and sequence of Law and Institution in any sense ; and if she 
were cast into new convulsions, there is absolutely for her no 
shelter, and no holding ground. Despotic power has lost 
its traditions ; Constitutional Government lives only day by 
day on the breath of Despotism. The Lex Regia is not abro- 
gated; there has only been introduced a contradictory system, 
indeed the two are woven together, and this state of things can- 
not long last without impairing the common sense, and de- 
stroying the judgment of the nation. When we have arrived 
at this point, we have arrived at the end of a subject, — when 
that point is turned the affairs of a nation become only news, 
and can further interest only journalists, diplomatists, and 
cynics. 



NORWAY. 



Norway and Denmark were united in 1380, by the here- 
ditary succession in the former kingdom of Olaf the Second, 
who had been elected for Denmark. This connection is generally 
referred to the great Union of Calmar, when, under Margaret, 
the daughter of Waldemar IV, and mother and successor of 
Olaf, the three Scandinavian Crowns were declared to be for 
ever conjoined. The link was of short duration as regards 
Sweden, and productive only of present suffering and per- 
manent ill-will ; the separation is attributed to the oppressions 
of the Danish kings, for the common kings residing at Copen- 
hagen were regarded as Danish. But if no such effects 



* See 'Morning Herald,' 12th September, 1842, 



INTERNAL CONSTITUTION. 



153 



followed in Norway, and if that Union by absence of inter- 
ference * and disloyalty has subsisted down to our times only 
then to be broken by foreign violence, the cause of the 
difference must be looked for not in the dispositions of the 
kings of Copenhagen, but in the character of the Norwegians 
and Swedes. Faction will invite Despotism: without it 
Despotism may remain an abstract virtue, but never become 
a fountain of events for history. The Swedes were factious, 
the Norwegians were not. 

The Norwegians are a people to whom the word primitive 
may in its most emphatic and valuable sense be applied — 
simple and upright ; at a distance from the wars of the great 
European States, without losing their bravery or their spirit ; 
— at a distance from the contaminating commotions of in- 
ternal discord, without losing public zeal and patriotic 
affections ; strong in their mountains, and rich in their 
splendid harbours, they pursued their various mountaineer 
and maritime enterprises with industry, patience, and fru- 
gality ; visiting the remotest regions of the earth, they 
returned home, bringing with them the profits only of their 
intercourse with the world — innocent gold, not corrupting 
thoughts. 

It was a union thus consecrated by time, by benefits, by 
affections, that the Cabinets of Europe undertook to dissolve, 
in a Conference undertaken to restore the nations to their 
rights : it was an allegiance so rooted in time, a loyalty so 
approved by affection, that the kings of Europe resolved to 
shatter 5 commencing with the fiction of a usurpation, they 
said, " We shall do this with Norway, our possession : we 
shall take her from one king, and we shall give her to 
another: 55 and they did so; and they told their own people 
that the one king had offended them, and that the other had 
pleased them, and the people were content ! But indeed, in 
this case, the Congress of Vienna was only required to ratify 

* A civil code had been compiled under Christian IV, but it was 
from the local usages and ordinances of former kings. In eccle- 
siastical matters there was a Canon copied from that of Denmark, 

7 § 



154 



SCANDINAVIA. 



a measure in the previous year enacted and accomplished. 
England alone undertook to perform this service, which she 
accomplished at Kiel on the 14th January, 1814, and to 
which, as the prototype of the Treaty of May, I shall have to 
treat of particularly when I come to the external relations of 
the Scandinavian kingdoms. 

The people of Norway were not, however, like the people of 
Europe, — they would not be disposed of like animals. They 
armed to resist. The Crown Prince of Denmark, then their 
viceroy, put himself at their head, and, reverting to their 
ancient rights, they elected him their king. The odds, how- 
ever, against them were terrific ; in fact, they were a pro- 
tocoled people, — one which wakes some morning and finds 
all the world its foes, and not a friend on earth. They, 
therefore, provided against the possible execution of the 
Ukase of Kiel, by establishing a general order for the 
government of the kingdom, which I am reduced to designate 
by a hateful word. But this Constitution did not subvert the 
internal liberties of the people ; and so good a countenance 
did they show, that the prudent King of Sweden thought it 
best to accept it together with them: not having been copied 
from the democrats of Paris, nor guaranteed by the Con- 
gress of Vienna, it exists to this day ; in fact, it was a wise, 
and not a foolish one. 

The Storting of Norway was a body resembling what the 
Parliaments anciently were in England, that is to say, of 
the Peers and a delegation of the Communes, to whom every 
matter was referred. There was now but a sole chamber, 
with the controlling veto of the king ; this power was re- 
duced in practice to a nullity, as it could be exercised in 
respect to any measure but twice. The Storting thus pos- 
sessed whatever legislative power was to be exerted in the 
country, and held also the administrative functions : the army, 
navy, and exchequer, were under its control. After the 
Union with Sweden was settled, a modification took place 
by the introduction of a Stadtholder, or Viceroy, who might 
be a Swede. Having been before ruled by the Lex Regia of 



INTERNAL CONSTITUTION. 



155 



Denmark, Norway thus suddenly passed from the purest 
Absolutism to the purest Democracy. In this soil both 
trees have bome fruit equally good. 

On these conditions, Norway was no great boon : the 
apparent sacrifice of their independence as a nation had only 
the effect of engendering the sense of independence as a 
people. They were armed too to maintain it. The Swedish 
map, indeed, exhibits a large accession of territory : statistical 
returns a large increase of maritime and military force; 
the budget an augmentation of resources, but of this increment 
the Swedish king could not dispose. In attempting to form a 
party in Norway, and to open it to regal and ministerial 
corruption, results have followed the very reverse of the 
experience of all other modern countries, and the Norwegian, 
not the Swedish, element has prevailed. The common flag 
has undergone a change expressive of the increased considera- 
tion of the former ; the Swedish kings have relinquished in 
practice their faculty of appointing to the Stadtholdership one 
of their Swedish subjects ; and nobility as an order 
of the state, and as a class, has been abrogated, notwith- 
standing the exercise of the veto of the King in two successive 
Stortings. The Bill was first passed in 1817, again in 1821 : 
the Storting by a wise provision is only assembled every third 
year; in 1824 it became law by the course of the Constitu- 
tion. Bernadotte, when he accepted the Convention of Moss, 
had complacently remarked, Nous cJiangerons tout cela ! 

By the transfer Denmark lost strength, but Sweden 
acquired none : the power which in the former case was 
positive, becomes negative in the latter. But Norway was 
given to Sweden as a compensation ; thus at the same time 
strength was withdrawn, and weakness conferred. Denmark 
and Sweden can now no longer cooperate for their defence ; 
and Norway, instead of rallying in the common cause, will 
rejoice in the peril of the Crown, by which it has been 
betrayed, and of that by which it has been annexed. Let 
it, however, be remembered that this has been effected by a 
stipulation of that Treaty considered the public law of 



SCANDINAVIA. 



Europe, violated indeed with impunity, wherever further 
"Progress" is practicable in the wolfish ways of our times, 
but firm and binding in so far as it crushes worth and per- 
petuates disorder. 

SWEDEN. 

The Diet is composed of four estates, sitting each by 
itself, — the Nobility, the Clergy, the Burghers, and the Pea- 
santry, each being represented by individuals belonging to 
itself. The head of every noble family has the faculty of 
admission to the Assembly of nobles : here, as formerly in 
Denmark, nobility descends to all the issue. 

In the early Gothic States whilst the primitive order still 
remained unbroken, no inconvenience arose from multiplicity 
of Councils whether general or local, but with administrative 
concentration and indirect taxes, the case is widely different, 
and instead of opposing obstacles to bad measures, encum- 
bers the march of necessaiy business, interposes delay?, 
affords endless occasions to successful intrigue and disap- 
pointed ambitions and maintains a permanent struggle of 
organised and co-ordinate interests. Political life in Sweden 
was a school of corruption, and the soil was adapted for 
the growth of that rankest of intellectual weeds — the idea of 
change, although by law capital punishment was the penalty 
of innovation : thus since the accession of the line of Olden- 
burg, Sweden has presented a scene of continual struggles, 
in which the king; looked abroad for support against domestic 
faction, and which opened to foreign influence the mass of 
politicians. Stockholm was divided between the Hats and 
the Bonnets : the first representing the Aristocracy, the second 
the Democracy ; but which have acquired historic importance 
from the connection of the one with Prance, and of the other 
with Eussia. 

Sweden, like Norway and Denmark, has had its Eevolution ; 
but, unlike these, it had reference solely to foreign matters. 
Gustavus III, on his succession, having beforehand planned 



INTERNAL CONSTITUTION. 



157 



the emancipation of his country, avoided taking the ordinary- 
oath to observe the existing laws and their interpretation by 
the Senate, and managed to effect a Revolution, at the time 
considered the annihilation of Faction, and which both of these, 
sick of themselves, combined to celebrate. It amounted, 
however, to no more than vesting in the hands of the king 
the prerogative of peace and war. The result, however, was 
not fortunate, the Russian Cabinet (which had bound itself 
by the Treaty of Neustadt to take no concern touching the 
form of the Swedish Government) found means to upset an 
order of things, which the endeavours of Prussia and Austria 
were exerted to support, and which, if maintained, would 
have prevented the partition of Poland. * 

* "His (Ghistavus III) new Constitution, in fifty-seven articles, 
was received as the perfection of Legislation. They conferred con- 
siderable power on the Sovereign ; enabled him to make peace, or 
declare war, without the consent of the Diet ; but he could make 
no new law, or alter any already made, without its concurrence ; 
and he was bound to ask, though not always to follow, the advice of 
his Senate, in matters of graver import. The form of the Constitu- 
tion was not much altered ; and the four orders of deputies still 
remained. On the whole it was a liberal Constitution. If this 
Revolution was agreeable to the Swedes themselves, it was odious 
to Catherine II, who saw Russian influence annihilated by it, and who 
expressed her resolution to restore the system of Government which 
it had subverted : but the representations of Prussia and Austria 
induced her to rest satisfied with a barren menace." — Dunharrfs 
History of Sweden^ DenmarJc } and Norway ^ hi, p. 293, 



158 



GHAPTEE II. 
External Relations. 

The internal and external condition of the Scandinavian 
kingdoms are so closely interwoven, that it is difficult — indeed 
impossible, to separate them. All which in this rapid sketch 
I have attempted to do is to separate Diplomacy as acting 
on Institutions and as • acting on Dismemberment, and the 
play of anterior Alliances leading to it. To the latter point 
I shall now more particularly address myself. 

Whatever pain the decay of the two other Scandinavian 
kingdoms may occasion, still more lamentable is the sight 
of the degradation of that people who has placed in the 
highest historic rank the name of Scandinavia, and which 
is distinguished above all other European nations as the 
chivalrous foe of the enemy of Europe. A line of heroic 
princes has made the name of Sweden familiar even to our 
schoolboy recollections ; the genius of her monarchs and the 
valour of her soldiers have largely influenced the destiny of 
Europe; and to Sweden is Protestantism indebted for its 
triumph at the Treaty of Westphalia. But if the name of 
Sweden is illustrated by great and chivalrous acts, by trophies 
of just arms and sacrifices to honour, her name is also rescued 
from oblivion by others of a different character — she has 
marked her career in Europe by ambitious projects. Here, 
as everywhere, injustice abroad has borne its fruits at home 
— if unsuccessful, ruin ; if successful, fetters. 

That point in Swedish history which chiefly bears on the 
present subject is that of Charles XII. By an instinct 
common to Frederick II and Napoleon, he felt that in the 
Eastern world lay the strength that coidd be evoked against 
Eussia. It was this thought that carried a Swedish army 
to the Ukraine, and which left Scandinavian bones at Pultava. 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS, 



159 



This apparently insane march spread through the East the 
fame and the name of Sweden ; thus magnified, it was re- 
flected on Europe with enduring splendour. It was this 
struggle which developed Russia's military power; Charles 
rendered to her the same service which the Lacedaemonians 
did to the Thebans, and further, by his failure first spread 
the delusion of her inaccessibility. 

Gustavus the Third seized the occasion of the war of 
Catherine with the Turks to retake the provinces wrested from 
Sweden, and to check the power of the Czarina. The windows 
of her palace were shaken by his cannon, and a large proportion 
of the Russian navy sunk ; but she knew how to raise up 
enemies to him at home in Faction and at sea in Denmark, and 
it was this enterprising Monarch who put his hand with her 
to a Treaty to "maintain the Principle of the Baltic as a 
close sea, with the guarantee of its coast against all acts of 
hostility, violence, or aggression ivhateuer, and further to employ 
for that purpose all the means m the power of the respective 
contracting parties" 

It thus fell to the lot of Gustavus the Third to establish the 
maritime, as of Charles the Twelfth, the military power of 
Russia. Gustavus now having learnt that Ink was worth more 
than Gunpowder, threw the idle Sword away and took to the 
Printing Press. 

In one of the most remarkable works of recent times, — 
" The Danger of Europe," he exposed the worthlessness of 
carnal weapons against a Cabinet, versed in every evil art, 
which knew how to contaminate and circumvent. It appro- 
priately replied by the Assassin's Bullet. 

The fleets to be excluded by the compact with Gustavus III. 
from the Baltic were those of England. It was Sweden who 
had implored, and implored in vain, their presence. The 
power of Sweden and of Denmark was now given to her as 
protection, — when at length Retaliation came, it fell, not on 
Cronstadt, but on Copenhagen ! Who will not mentally revert 
to more recent events in the Black Sea and at Constantinople ? 
The fates and events of these kingdoms are so closely inter- 



160 



SCANDINAVIA. 



woven that the catastrophe of Copenhagen affected Sweden as 
much as if it had occurred at Stockholm. 

Copenhagen had been bombarded, not merely as a remote 
effect of the Armed Neutrality of Catharine, but as an im- 
mediate one of that of Paul. Whatever the cause, by the fact, 
England was momentarily rendered supreme in the Baltic; 
but a letter from Alexander, who had just succeeded to the pos- 
session of the crown, to Nelson, who had just succeeded to the 
command of the fleet, sufficed to turn the bows of the English 
vessels westward, and to leave again Kussia dominant over 
that now prostrate Sea, She then concluded a peace with 
England of which Denmark was the sole sacrifice.* 

Denmark, not having a chivalrous monarch nor a factious 
people, saw in the French war no field of enterprise and no 
necessity of exertion ; she therefore remained at peace, profit- 
ing by the convulsions around her, increasing her trade and 
restoring her marine. It was necessary to smite her with 
a second blow ; the ready hand of England was again 
available. But Eussia herself was at war with France and 
the Ally of England : how was this to be effected ? Shortly 
before the second Bombardment of Copenhagen, Napoleon 
desired to make peace, and after the Battle of Austerlitz all 
Europe desired peace, Eussia excepted. Negotiations be- 
tween England and France had been opened and carried to 
a successful conclusion, even at Paris itself, and every matter 
pending between the two Powers had been adjusted, But 
England and Eussia at the beginning of the war had 
agreed not to make a separate peace, and England, faithful 
to her engagements — she always is faithful to Eussia — broke 

* " The Expedition" (against Copenhagen) "was imposed upon 
England by the frantic and deceitful conduct of Paul."— BelTs 
Russia, vol. iii, p. 260. 

" Denmark alone had any just reason to be dissatisfied with these 
arrangements : she was compelled to submit to the abandonment of 
those principles for the maintenance of winch she had expended so 
much blood and treasure, and saw herself forsaken by the very power 
who forced her into that confederation which plunged her into the 
war with England," — Ihicl* p. 264-5. 



EXTERNAL EELATIOXS. 



161 



off the negotiation, because Russia wanted and Napoleon 
would not let her have, Moldavia and Wallachia. The French 
armies consequently march to the North and extinguish 
Prussia. The reasons now redoubled on the part of France 
for desiring peace, but Russia encouraged Napoleon to go 
on by sacrificing to him 60,000 Russians in the short cam- 
paign of Dantzig and the battle of Friedland ; and then, 
having just before frustrated his peaceful overtures, she made 
this the pretext for partitioning Prussia, whom she had 
forced to continue the war, and betraying England, whom 
she had pushed into it. A faithless ambassador of her own 
then betrayed to England the secret article of the Treaty of 
Tilsit.* The English Cabinet, thus enlightened, bombarded 
Copenhagen the second time. Russia now declared against 
England, engaging Denmark in a reciprocal guarantee for the 
tranquillity of the Baltic, which, as she asserted, had been 
established with the privity of the Cabinet of St. James 9 s.\ 

* The secret article referred to Denmark only generally, in common 
with Sweden, Portugal, and Austria herself; it applied in like man- 
ner to Turkey, whose Capital England was also induced to attempt 
to bombard, and with the same effect as in Denmark. 

f " Wounded in his dignity, in the interests of his people, in his 
engagements with the Courts of the North, by this act of violence 
committed in the Baltic, which is an inclosed sea, whose tranquillity 
had teen for a long period, and with the privity of the Cabinet of 
St. Jameis, the subject of reciprocal guarantee, did not dissemble 
his resentment against England, and announced to her, &c."— 
Manifesto of the 20th October, 1807. 

The same document contains this passage : " Then it was that 
England suddenly quitted that apparent lethargy to which she had 
abandoned herself: but it was to cast upon the North of Europe 
new firebrands, which were to enkindle and nourish the flames of 
war, which she did not wish to see extinguished. Her fleets and her 
troops appeared upon the coasts of Denmark, to execute there an 
act of yiolence, of which history, so fertile in examples, does not 
furnish a single parallel. A tranquil and moderate Power, which 
by long and unchanging wisdom had obtained in the circle of 
Monarchies a moral dignity, sees itself assaulted and treated as if it 
had been forging plots, and meditating the ruin of England ; and all 
to justify its prompt and total spoliation,' ' 



1G2 



SCANDINAVIA. 



Sweden, however, remained true to England, and thus 
found herself at war with Eussia, who offered to her peace, 
" on the condition that the King of Sweden will without 
delay join Eussia and Denmark in shutting the Baltic against 
England."* The offer was however rejected, and England 
proffered, for the second time, the transfer to her of Norway. 
Sweden's participation in the war only enabled Eussia to 
occupy one half of her territory, Finland . 

We now come to the great Event of the North, in which the 
Tribunal of Vienna exercised the high and double functions 
of grace and justice — where, passing from the meaner occu- 
pation of restoring rights, it proceeded to the higher duties 
of awarding punishment and conferring recompense ; taking 
a kingdom in its hand, it abstracted it from the delinquent 
and conferred it on the meritorious, — Denmark being 
punished for being on the unfortunate side, Sweden being 
recompensed for being on the other. But strange to say. the 
punished Government had been by the judges themselves forced 
in its option, and had voluntarily abandoned its party, and 
the recompensed Government was itself simultaneously dis- 
membered ! 

This transaction, unparalleled in the atrocity of its avowed 
purpose, but almost incredible in the perfidy of the agency 
employed, has been brought to light in all its details in works 
of unquestionable authority; "the facts," says the continuator 
of Bignon, "have been irrevocably acquired for history:" 
recent events show that they have not been acquired for 
instruction. Since the above quoted words were written 
further light has been thrown on the matter by a Swedish 
publication, which has, indeed, attracted no notice beyond 
the limits of Scandinavia. I content myself, however, with 
the exposition as it is given by the historian of French Diplo- 
macy. 

When Alexander met Bernadotte at Abo, in 1812, it was 
secretly arranged between them that Sweden at the general 



* Manifesto, 10th February, 1808, 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS. 



163 



pacification should not reclaim Finland , and that Eussia 
should obtain for her Norway, as an equivalent. Into this 
arrangement England entered, and engaged, if necessary, to 
assist in an active manner with her fleet, to cany it into 
effect : Norway being soon after afflicted w r ith famine, an 
opportunity w T as afforded which the British Government did 
not neglect. 

The reasons put forward for the transfer breathed, however, 
nothing but goodwill, and an anxious regard for the well- 
being of the countries concerned. The British Government 
had only in view the advantages that were to be secured by 
"the reunion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, and the re- 
establishment of the natural limits between the two states.' 5 
The Danish Cabinet replied that "it considered as sufficiently 
natural the limits which, for two centuries, had separated its 
States from those of Sweden. No power had made greater 
efforts than Denmark to assure its independence, and the 
King was resolved to resist every new design against the 
security of his subjects. He could not adopt the principle 
that they were susceptible of being bartered against strangers, 
as furniture or flocks might be trucked against others — a 
doctrine destructive of the independence and happiness of 
nations, the avowed object of the Coalition.' 5 

To these arguments the English Minister replied by the 
appearance of an English fleet before Copenhagen. One of 
the vessels anchored at the entrance of the port, and the 
British agent, Mr, Thornton, landed from it. He gave the 
Danish Government forty-eight hours before commencing 
hostilities, to sign a Treaty of which the principal conditions 
were the concession of Norway, the instant surrender of the 
province of Drontheim, and a contingent of 25,000 men to 
conquer the indemnities, which might afterwards accrue to 
Denmark. 

Denmark this time w r as not prepared to succumb, and 
England thought it more prudent to desist. Denmark's 
alliance with Trance had neither been the result of sympathy, 
nor of conquest. \ but solely, as- appears on the face of the 



1G4 



SCAXDIXAYIA. 



negotiations, because of the " resentment which she nourished 
against Great Britain," because of her previous conduct. 
Now the only obstacle to her joining the Coalition was her 
dread of the dismemberment of Xorway. She even dis- 
patched Envoys to London and to St. Petersburgh ; but in 
the meantime a Russian Envoy was sent to Copenhagen. 
Count Bernsdorf's mission to London was not less to pre- 
vent Norway from being starved, than to negociate for its 
preservation. The English Cabinet interposed calculated 
delays, apparently with the object of insuring success to the 
mission of Prince Dolgorouki, — a mission which was one of 
the most unworthy diplomatic rascalities (indigne rouerie 
diplomatique) of which history has to preserve the accusing 
memory; by it the Cabinet of Copenhagen, lulled into a 
fatal security, suffered itself to be compromised against 
France :* then the mask was dropped. Count Bernsdorf was 
frankly informed that England considered Norway only in 
the light of a Swedish province, and summarily dismissed 
without being suffered even to transmit to the Prince Regent, 
a letter entrusted to him by his master. Count Moltke fared 
no better at St. Petersburgh: on his first audience, the 
Emperor Alexander told him that Prince Dolgorouki, if he 
had guaranteed to Denmark the possession of Norway, had 
exceeded his powers, and that " the engagements contracted 
in that respect with Sweden, and in concert with England 
were for ever inviolable." 

The Treaty was signed in the beginning of 1814, as a 
contract between Sweden and Denmark alone. On the same 
day, however, England figures as signing at the same place 
a Treaty of Peace with Denmark. By the 13th Article, the 

* To Denmark, the Hanseatic Towns were offered as a compensation 
if she would join the Allies. She refused the bribe, but joined the 
alliance, and a collision actually took place between the Danish and 
the French, troops ; after recording the fact, M. Bignon proceeds, 
" The Danish Grovernment by an odious machination, thus found 
itself at once at war with the Coalition, and with Kapoleon who had 
just triumphed at Lutzen." — Mist* de France^ t. xii, p. 81. 



EXTERNAL .RELATIONS. 



165 



King of Sweden engages to exercise his authority with the 
allies, to obtain at the general pacification that indemnity for 
Denmark, which he has evinced his disposition to afford by 
the cession of Pomerania and the Isle of Rugen.* 

England revives the former Treaties of Peace and Com- 
merce, but not of Guarantee : Denmark, independently of the 
former Guarantees, now naturally demanded one for the pos- 
sessions that had been left to her ; the omission was therefore 
not one of inadvertence ; indeed England took to herself 
Heligoland, a portion of the Gottorp territory, the possession 
of which she had guaranteed in 1721, Russia signs no 
Treaty at Kiel. 

It now remained to settle matters with Norway. Here 
there was no capital that could be threatened with Bom- 
bardment; but a dispensation of Providence, which might 
have softened the heart of an enemy or a tyrant, was taken 
advantage of by these diplomatic spoilers, and as already 
said English cruisers intercepted the grain destined for 
Norway, while the King of Denmark prohibited its exporta- 
tion under penalty of death. That people could not be 
brought to believe that England was acting by a settled 
purpose, and despatched envoys to London to implore justice 
and mercy. They contrived to smuggle themselves into 
England, but the Government, dreading still the Public or 
the Parliament, had them seized and sent home. 

The Swedish and Danish Commissioners were empowered 
to use the following language (7 July, 1814) to the elected 
King of Norway. 

" The cession of Norway has been guaranteed by the great 

* Art xiii. S. M. le Roi de Suede desirant contribuer, autant 
qu'il sera possible et qu'il dependra d'elle, a ce que S. M. le Roi de 
Banemarc obtienne quelque dedommagernent pour la cession du 
rojaume de Norvege, ce dont S. M. donne une preuve manifeste par 
la cession dela Porneranie Suedoises et deriledeRugen,elle employ era 
toute son autorite aupres^les hautes puissances alliees pour obtenir 
independamment de cela,lors d'une pais generale, un dedommagernent 
proportionne pour la cession de la JNorvege. 

7 5 



160 



SCANDINAVIA. 



powers,* the Allies of Russia. This decision is irrevocable. 
The High Powers consider this reunion" (?) "as one of the 
bases of the new system of political equilibrium, and in case of 
refusal the Eussian General Benningsen (the same who had 
betrayed to destruction the Eussian army in the campaign of 
Dantzig) who occupies Holstein with 50,000 men is authorised 
to invade Schleswig and the Prussian troops will march to 
the succour of the Swedes. The undersigned find themselves 
therefore in the position of having to announce that they are 
not mediators between Sweden and Norway but rather 
hekalds or arms, whose duty it is to insist on the execution 
of the Treaty of Kiel." 

This array of power and resolution, of cruelty and astuteness 
had, however, one salutary effect in breaking that bond of 
servility and dependence by which the smaller states are 
cursed and the greater tempted. The fortunate conditions 
which Norway obtained depended, however, not alone upon 
her own dispositions, but also on the repugnance felt in 
Sweden itself to the annexation. The patriotic portion of 
that people held the acquisition to be both dangerous and 
unjust, and were shrewd enough to suspect even the purpose 
for which it w T as forced upon them, namely, the dismember- 
ment, at the general pacification of a province far otherwise 
important — Finland. The party entertaining these view r s was 
powerful, and numbered even members of the Administration. 
The annexation was carried so to say by a Eussian faction as 
it was forced on Norway ultimately by a threat of Eussian 
intervention ; yet Eussia is innocent of the whole transaction. 
Eussia, be it remembered, was the patron of Denmark, and 
it was because of the alliance of Denmark with her that 
England had first devised the dismemberment. 

At the first treaty of Vienna the powers therefore found 
Norway transferred to Sweden, Swedish Pomerania, as an 
instalment of compensation, transferred to Denmark; and 

# In Bignon, vol. xiv, p. 184, the wor^is Quatre Puissances, but 
on reference to the Swedish documents it appears to be a misquota- 
tion. 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS. 



167 



Russia in possession of the Swedish province of Finland. 
This was not the state of things before the war ; they do 
not restore Finland to Sweden, or Norway to Denmark ; or 
even afford to the latter the promised compensation. How- 
ever, Sweden has yet energy enough to become a party to 
the secret Quadruple Alliance with England, Austria, and 
France, against the further encroachments of Russia. On 
this Napoleon is brought back from Elba.* After the Battle 
of Waterloo Russia has everything her own way : Sweden 
no longer joins in Secret Treaties on that side ; the principal 
part of the pecuniary indemnity stipulated at Kiel is sur- 
rendered to Sweden for the expenses of the Norwegian expedi- 
tion : Prussia takes possession of Swedish Pomerania and 
the Isle of Rugen equally guaranteed by that Treaty to 
Denmark, who has to content herself with a portion of the 
Duchy of Lauenburg. 

This is the simple state of the case. The dismemberment 
was settled privately with England ; but as such a proposition 
could not be ventured at the final pacification, and as, 
during the war, it was impracticable while Denmark and 
France were united, Denmark had to be entrapped into 
breaking with France. A private transaction between Sweden 
and Denmark remains, therefore, at the General Settlement 
the basis of a transfer, which is accepted on the plea of 
Denmark's alliance with France. It may be well now to 
contrast the view of her own conduct, which England receives 
from her public Instructors : — 

" Although history cannot contemplate without regret the 
violent transference of a brave and ancient people, from the 
Government of their father's to a stranger rule ; yet the 
mournful impression is much alleviated by the reflection that 
Denmark obtained, to a certain extent at least, an equivalent, 
adjacent to its own territories, that the Scandinavian 

# Some of the evidence upon which this statement rests, will 
shortly appear in a work on. the Diplomacy of England since 1792, 
by a Grerman writer of high authority. Some of the facts will be 
found in a letter published in the * Morning Post,' in February, 1847. 



168 



SCANDINAVIA. 



Peninsula was thus for the first time united under one 
dominion, and a power all but insular* established in the 
Baltic, which, with the support of the British navy, may 
possibly be able to maintain its independence in future 
times, even beside the colossal power which overshadows the 
North of Europe." f 

The participation of Bernadotte in this spoliation is the 
great blot upon his name ; but even his panegyrist can be 
very differently candid from the historian of Russian ambition 
and the apologist of British subserviency. After justifying 
the robbery from Denmark by the robbery of Russia, and 
balancing the blow of the compensation against the shock of 
the dismemberment, he proceeds in these terms. 

" If regard be had only to the geographical position of 
Sweden and Norway, can it be denied that nature designed 
the Scandinavian peninsula to be united under the same 
government ? In this, however, as in many other instances, 
proximity of situation appears to have produced anything but 
goodwill. The Norwegians have never loved the Swedes, 
and they regret, to this hour, their forcible separation from 
their ancient protectors, the Danish Kings, whose truly pater- 
nal sway had ever been gratefully acknowledged by them. 
To dissever a connection which had subsisted for so many ages, 
and been consecrated by the dearest recollections of history, was 
equally arbitrary and cruel; time will prove whether it was less 
impolitic" 

The object of Russia in the Scandinavian kingdoms was to 

* Strange qualification ! the ice in winter allows Copenhagen to 
be attacked by a land force, as in the memorable Siege, whilst the 
Danish ships are blocked up : in summer the Belts place Zealand at 
the mercy of a superior naval force. In the secret project of Coalition 
between Sweden and Russia, in 1718, the sixth article is as follows : 
" The two fleets shall endeavour to stop the passage of the Belts, 
that the Danish troops in Holstein and Jutland may not return into 
Zealand ; and do all that is possible to keep the Danish fleet shut 
out, and to cut off* all communication of Denmark with abroad." 

t Alison's Hist, of Europe. 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS. 



169 



disarrange (how it mattered little) their political structure, 
and to weaken them in such a manner as to keep alive or to 
awaken jealousy and animosity, and, by estranging them from 
each other, to raise up that bitterness which is strong in pro- 
portion as associations are near and ties consanguineous : 
and all this has been done for her. The settlement of Europe 
leaves Sweden, the chivalrous ally of the Coalition, and whose 
Prince was first designated to command its armies, whom 
the Powers had undertaken to recompense by the dismember- 
ment of one neighbour, and to strengthen for protection 
against another, with its Capital menaced by a Portress, 
reared upon soil recently its own — seeing the powerful 
Capital of its enemy established where it had ruled — deprived 
of half its territory — oppressed by a hollow compensation 
— prostrated by internal faction — exhausted by military pre- 
parations, digging ditches and building walls only to reveal its 
fears and hopelessness. 

Now let us turn back to a former century, and contrast the 
conduct and anticipations of England and Russia. The fol- 
lowing is the separate article of a Treaty signed between 
England and Sweden, 1st February, 1720 : — 

" As it is important for the Protestant Religion and the 
commerce of Sweden and Great Britain, and of all Christen- 
dom, that the Tzar should not dominate over the Baltic Sea, 
the King of Great Britain will not only give the succours 
promised in this Treaty, but will induce also his Allies to 
succour Sweden against the Tzar, if the latter will not 
restore to Sweden that which is indispensable for her se- 
curity, and for guaranteeing the liberty of commerce with the 
Baltic. 55 

On that occasion the mischief which this useless Treaty 
was directed to cure had been done by England herself, who, 
five years before, had assisted Russia to the possession of 
those very provinces, in consequence of the desire of George I 
to add Bremen and Yerden to Hanover. But these schemes 
not being grateful to the English nation, Russia toned to 



8 



170 



SCANDINAVIA. 



France, and the following remarkable propositions were made, 
and judgments expressed by the Czar Peter : — 

" The system of Europe is changed ; the basis of all the 
Treaties of Trance is that of Westphalia. "Why has France 
united herself to Sweden ? It is that it had possessions in 
Germany, and thus her Alliance balanced the power of the 
Emperor. But to-day Sweden is almost extinguished, and 
can be of no further service to France. The Czar therefore 
offers himself to France, to take for her the place of Sweden, 
and to afford her not only his alliance, but his power, and 
at the same time that of Prussia, without which she cannot 
act. 5 '* 

Thus had Eussia equally used war and peace ; prompted the 
rage, directed the arms, and triumphed in the victories of all 
the nations in whose affairs she mingled, being secure of ad- 
vantage wherever there was strife, and certain of reaping the 
victory wherever blood was drawn. 

The difference in the fate of Bernadotte, and that of the 
upstart monarchs imposed on Naples, Spain, Holland, &c, 
justifies, no doubt, his election by the Swedes, but it is not 
the less true that that event shakes the future securities of 
the kingdom. Of all questions which can endanger a country 
without, and distract it within, that of succession is the 
first, and that insecurity is greatest in cases where there is 
allowed to subsist a conflict between succession and election. 
There remains a Pretender on the ground of hereditary right, 
but what is more ominous, there is in some form a Eussian 
Guarantee for the present elected Dynasty. On the demise 
of Bernadotte the fact was revealed by the then organ of the 
British Government, and the consequences thence to be 
drawn were thus stated in March, 1844 : — 

"Eussia is understood to guarantee the succession in 
Bernadotte's family, in return, no doubt, for Sweden's adhesion 
to the system of Eussia's predominance in the Baltic. When, 



* Frassan, H:st. de la Diploni. Frai^aise, v. iv, p. 448. 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS. 



171 



in addition to this, we learn that a marriage has taken place 
between the heir to the throne of Denmark and a Russian 
Princess, we cannot but feel that the Sound is equally menaced 
with the Bosphorus, and that the Baltic may become, like the 
Black Sea, a Russian lake." 

Formerly the parties of the "Bonnets" and the "Hats" 
at Stockholm, were the Antitypes of the present foreign 
factions of Athens. This suffices to show that Erance 
in the course of the last century maintained a permanent 
competition with Russia, and exerted herself to prevent her 
ascendancy on the Baltic and in the North. The fact is not 
less singular because unnoticed, that no French party now 
exists at Stockholm. Under the Administrations which 
intervened between Louis XIV and the Revolution, no in- 
fluence could be exerted by France in any foreign country. 
By the Revolution her party was finally extinguished in 
Sweden, and that country became one of the most active 
of those engaged in the war against her. At the peace it 
might have been restored, because, on the one hand, France 
under any intelligible system must have been the basis of 
resistance to the encroachments of Russia, and on the other, 
Sweden had for king chosen a Frenchman, distinguished 
alike in the council and in the field, and who had in the time 
of France's grandeur separated himself from her policy as 
prejudicial to the interest of the country whose Crown he 
wore ; but Russia ruled at Paris. She had removed the only 
man in France, who could have given a rational direction to 
its policy (Talleyrand), and filled his place by a servant of her 
own (the Due de Richelieu). Again, it was not in France that 
she obtained this victory, but at London amd Vienna, 
the Cabinets of which she induced to relinquish four millions 
sterling of the indemnity money, on the condition of removing 
from the French Foreign Office the obnoxious individual, who, 
at the first Congress of Vienna, had prompted the defensive 
Treaty between England, France, Austria, and Sweden. 

From the peace of 1815 till 1830, no event occurred cal- 
culated to influence opinion or acts in Sweden ; but on the 



172 



SCAXDIXAVIA. 



breaking out of that Revolution the old spirit revived, and 
Sweden prepared itself to take its share in securing Poland. 
It made overtures to England, which were treated in the 
same style as those of Turkey, and its generous impulses 
curbed in the same manner as was arrested the Persian army 
already on its march to the Russian frontier. Bernadotte in- 
dignant turned round to the very Power that he had attempted 
to resist, and a secret Convention was settled between him and 
Russia, which, however, w T as not executed until the close of 
June, 1834. This prostration of Sweden concurred in date 
with the submission of England and France to the Treaty of 
Hunkiar Skelessi, against which they had paraded their fleets. 
In 1836, again were hopes awakened in Sweden by the fal- 
lacious appearance then assumed by England. Sweden made 
overtures at Yienna, in Paris, and in London ; but in Vienna 
and in Paris, they watched but the conduct of England, and 
were guided by her decisions. What these were may be 
inferred from the manner in which she received an overture 
then made by Turkey in reference to the entrance of an 
English fleet into the Black Sea. The British Minister who 
treated this proposition as an act of hostility "to the Inde- 
pendence of Turkey," could not fail to regard any support of 
England given to Sweden as a blow to the " Independence 
of the Baltic," which as the Russian Manifesto against 
England had declared, had for a long time been established 
"with the privity of the Cabinet of St. James." This was 
Sweden's last attempt to escape from the gripe of the Bear. 

In the small states there is generally little faction ; against 
them must be used the factions of the great states, through 
their Diplomacy ; but independently of events Diplomacy 
exercises a silent and permanent influence on ideas. The 
Scandinavian kingdoms having no business to transact at 
any of the European Courts nevertheless have their accredited 
agents. The expense is considerable, and their revenue 
small ; they must find something to do ; and the work they 
invent is the making of abstracts of speeches in Parliament, 
and of leaders in the Journals, which are transmitted home 



EXTERNAL EELATIOXS. 



173 



as oracles of wisdom and lessons of statesmanship. The 
sphere of this Correspondence is indeed limited, but it is 
influential, and the emasculation of a few leading men suffices 
to cany the prostration of a whole people. The position 
of Eussia is such, that in the words of Cardinal Gonsalvi, 
" her watchfulness cannot slumber a single day." Her com- 
mand of the Diplomacy of the great states can only be of 
service in so far as the dissension in the smaller ones suffer 
its application; to this end in each the appropriate seeds 
must be sown. What, as regards Persia, would have served 
her influence in London, without a dispute respecting the 
Succession of the Crown ? what in Turkey, without a dispute 
between a Pasha and the Sultan ? what on the other hand 
would have profited her, the one or the other, unless she had 
already ruled in Downing Street ? Who before the event 
could have deemed it possible that England should have set 
up in Persia the Eussian candidate ; or that a dispute re- 
specting the frontiers of a Turkish Pashalic should have 
ruptured the alliance of England and France ? With this 
experience before us we must anticipate that in the Scandi- 
navian kingdoms she will prosecute the task which she has 
so far effectually accomplished, that day by day the Shuttle 
of Dissimulation will weave backwards and forwards the 
Web of Deceit, exhibiting figures adapted to the fancy of 
each, and local colours pleasing to their eye. Can it be 
doubted that on these she will bring to bear the foolish 
interference, or the insaner rivalries, of England, Prance, and 
Germany ; and that some morning we shall find Sweden in 
Eevolution, and Denmark Protocolised ? Let us then en- 
deavour to anticipate the peculiar facilities which she possesses 
in each.* 

Amongst the Scandinavians, no political capital could be 
worked out of " Legitimacy," or "Liberalism," "Papacy," 

* A new complication has arisen, which may be woven into the 
Web of future Discord. It is proposed that Denmark should be 
united to the Grerman Union, and that her Navy shall be restored in 
order to place a maritime force at the disposal of the Union. 



174 



SCANDINAVIA. 



or " Protestantism," " Protection/' or "Free Trade." The 
political, religious, and commercial "isms" and "ties" here 
slumbered in happy forget fulness. Those of Nationality alone 
could be quickened; and the monster " ScandiBaviafiism," 
appeared on the stage. Simultaneously " Panslavism" was 
infecting the middle and Eastern portions of Europe : its 
purpose was to incorporate with Eussia the surrounding 
States — " Seandinavianism" was to scare Eussia away ! The 
transfer of Norway had prepared the ground by awakening 
fears and exciting expectations. On this came to act the 
general dread of Incorporation by Eussia, and the students 
and journalists exclaimed, "Let us have a Scandinavian 
Union to protect ourselves." Alas ! not understanding the 
value of the human mind, they looked to size and number, 
knowing not that it is sense, not territory, that makes nations 
strong ; justice, not adjustment, that is the bulwark of states. 
Thus were exchanged fraternising visits and addresses of 
infatuated men, glorying in the not unfounded anticipation 
of a " future common fate." Then was asked the question, 
"which nation is to rule the other? 33 then arose the maxim, 
" the interest of the king must not stand in the way of the v:ell- 
being of the peojile" 

The effect on the Governments was just the same as of 
Eevolutionary Conspiracies,* but by this common danger the 

* A leading Statesman of Denmark writes thus, March, 1843: "You 
have heard, I presume, about the ' Scandinavian Union.' I have to 
remark with regard to this, that the Government was mistaken in 
supposing that there were any secret or avowed political objects con- 
nected with it, at least in the minds of the greater number of the mem- 
bers, though I confess that the few individuals who did make political 
speeches and allusions, have done much harm. The suppression of 
the Society is a material injustice, added to that which there is in 
taking such a step, without any appeal to existing laws, without 
any observation of the usual forms, thus throwing everything into 
uncertainty. I am persuaded that this deviation from the usually 
observed forms — a deviation which is so likely to be attributed to 
Foreign influence — will do much more harm than the 1 Scandinavian 
Union' ever could have done, had it even been a political Society.*' 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS. 



175 



km Courts were not united ; for to the question of Revolu- 
tion was superadded that of Confiscation. They had to 
hurry to St. Peters burgh to deprecate extinction and to bid 
for accession. The narrow affections of race and locality, 
were thus changed to plots and intrigues, the vague pretexts 
of patriotism and independence made to colour treason and 
conspiracy, and every scheme and every expectant servilely 
waited upon that foreign ambition resistance to which had 
brought this agitation into existence.* 

The favourite theme of the Apostles of the new Creed was 
the Union of Calmar. Now if any event could have taught 
the futility of fictitious means of creating that strength which 
a sense of right can only confer, it was precisely this fact. 
The Danes and the Swedes had been rival tribes from the 
earliest times, but these hostile dispositions, the result of 

* I subjoin an extract from a letter from a Danish lady to a 
Swede : " When you spoke to me of the Union of the Scandinavian 
countries under one Crown as highly desirable, and indeed as regarded 
resistance to Russia absolutely necessary^ I listened without con- 
curring, but also without opposing, because I felt that I was unable 
to judge. It is now otherwise. I see in that idea the greatest 
danger that threatens Scandinavia, and in you who promulgate this 
doctrine the tool of the Power whom you think to resist. ' Scandinavian 
Union' is to produce for her in the North the same results as Slavonic 
nationality is intended to bring about in the East ; the same results 
as union under Prussia is to produce in Germany, as separation 
in the case of the Ottoman Empire, as the hope held out by her to 
the Princes of Moldavia and Wallachia, that each shall unite under 
his sway the Dominion of the other : these results are discontent 
with the existing state of things, vague agitations for the undefined 
object, distrust between sovereign and subjects, ill-will between man 
and man, and all those innumerable means of corruption which she 
knows so well how to profit by. 

" Men who know their own rights, and respect those of others, 
and stand forward in defence of them, have nothing to fear from 
Russia. But does this strength dwell in the hearts of Swedes, who 
are seeking to incorporate with their own country the possessions of 
another sovereign ? How different would it be were you longing 
for a right, and not for a proposition." 



176 



SCANDINAVIA. 



conflicting predatory enterprise, had faded away, and been 
replaced by sentiments of goodwill, and a consciousness of 
community of interests founded on their common competition 
with the Hanseatic towns in trade, and the necessity of resist- 
ing the pretensions of the Germans and the Emperors in the 
North. But this union reopened the Fountain of Animosity 
which had been closed, and became the source to Russia of 
her actual preponderance : she first appears upon the scene, 
invited by Christian I of Denmark, to attach Swedish Finland ; 
she is then invited by Sweden to attach Norwegian Lapland : 
and thus like a vessel working against an adverse wind, has 
she made her way board and board through the Baltic, by 
knowing how to use the tiller. 

In April 1837, an important step was taken in this direc- 
tion. I refer to a despatch, written by Count Witterstedt, 
Foreign Minister of Sweden, and a Eussian Partisan ; he had 
signed the Treaty of Kiel. It was addressed to the Govern- 
ments of Denmark and Norway and gave the utmost possible 
importance to the Scandinavian agitation by announcing it 
as a matter capable of embroiling the various Governments, 
and as leading to the " overthrow of the existing order of 
things in the three kingdoms of the North." 

The source of this Despatch shows that Sweden, humbled 
and dismembered, and to whose Crown the family of Wasa fur- 
nished a slumbering Pretender, that was the kingdom selected 
as the instrument, and that the Mistress of the Sound was the 
one marked for attack and threatened with extinction. It 
was Denmark that had already been dismembered : it 
w r as its rival Sweden, on whose behalf the dismemberment 
had been effected : beyond this there were approaching 
differences as to the succession, in which Eussia herself had 
claims. That this is no visionary fear, may be gathered from 
an insertion in the c Court Almanac of St. Petersburg!^ 
(1844), where the Czar is styled " Reigning Duke of 
Holstein and Schleswig," and the King of Denmark is entered 
simply as i( Duke of Holstein and Schleswig." 

On the extinction of the male line of Frederick III, 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS. 



17? 



Denmark, according to the Lex Begia, is assumed to go to 
Prince Frederick of Hesse, and Schleswig-Holstein to the 
Duke of Augustenburg. By the marriage of a daughter of 
the Czar to Prince Frederick, the whole may be secured to 
Eussia, on the pretext of preventing a partition.* 

The prospects for the future are thus exposed by the organ 
of the Foreign Office (the ' Morning Chronicle '), its words 
are prophetic, and a warning to Denmark of the — hopelessness 
of resistance. 

'•'Prince Frederick William is married to a daughter of 
the Emperor Nicholas, who has already shown his zeal for 
the interests of his son-in-law by negociating for him the 
succession of the Duchies of Holstein, which, in the ordinary 
course of events, would fall to the ducal family of Holdein- 
Augustenburg, and not to the Prince of Hesse. Holstein is 
not properly a part of the Danish dominions, but belongs to 
Germany, and it is as Duke of Holstein that the King of 
Denmark is a member of the Germanic Confederation. The 
law of succession for Holstein is different from that for 
Denmark ; and Germany would, we believe, witness their 
separation with no small satisfaction — the more so, as it 
would probably secure the accession of Holstein to the 

* The following letter is at once explanatory and authoritative 
" I only heard of the marriage between the Prince of Hesse and 
the Grand Duchess of Russia being finally arranged after I had sent 
off my letter to you, but you may be assured that my feelings on 
the occasion were similar to yours, and the more so as our country- 
man who communicated the news to me regarded it as a most 
fortunate event, and a great achievement. c It will keep Denmark 
together,' said he, * and is the best way of disappointing tlMkh 
Scandinavian fools.' This proves that the project, with its real or 
presumed conditions, has been extolled by him in his usual exag- 
gerated way ; and the joyful acclamations with which he now hails 
its realisation will, of course, by the high personages with whose 
views he coincides, be received as new proofs of his ability, his 
devotion, and his patriotism. One of his expressions was, c We have 
thus secured the guarantee and friendship of Russia, that of England 
I think we already have, and may hope to preserve. Russia will 
follow, and we shall he safe against all partitions* " 



17,8 



SCAXDIXAYIA. 



Zollverein. But Russia is believed to have precluded this 
result, by having induced the Luke of Holsteiu-AugustenLurg 
and his family to cede their rights of succession, in considera- 
tion of a large pecuniary indemnity. Thus Denmark and 
Holstein are to be preserved as an entire inheritance for Prince 
Frederick William and his heirs, by means of Russian gold ; 
and family ties will give Eussia a natural and preponderating 
influence in that monarchy, which holds the keys of the Baltic, 
the Sound, and the Belt. The arrangement we refer to is, 
no doubt, a matter with which England has at present no 
just pretension to interfere; but we know too much of the 
far-seeing policy of Eussia to regard with indifference" [!] "the 
progress of events which tend to the future establishment of 
a Eussian Protectorate— or something more — over the Danish 
territory." 

The intellectual audacity of this Invasion of the Earth is 
from no other point of view so striking. It is now a thousand 
years and more, since the Russians sent an embassy beyond 
the sea to the Varangians to address them in these terms : 
" Our country is w^ide and fertile, but we are the prey of 
anarchy — come and rule over us." The Scandinavian Enrick 
and his brothers obeyed the summons, and proceeded to con- 
stitute the Eussian State. Their dominion was soon spread 
to the South, — discriminating in the village of Kief the 
appropriate seat of a new Empire, they redeemed it from the 
Khozars, and thus did the metropolis of the future Eussia 
pass from Cossacks to Danes. Between that powerful and 
energetic race of Northmen possessing all the Coasts, Har- 
bours, Promontories, and Islands of the North, together with 
the power at sea, and that other race which reckoned the land 
their owm, — the Cossack and Tartar horsemen sweeping the 
plains of the South and East, — has the Colossus sprung up 
crushing and appropriating the strength of the one and of 
the other ; she then interposed her immensity with its bar- 
rier of ignorance to that concert between her antagonists by 
which alone the ambition of states as of individuals can he 



EXTERNAL RELATIONS. 



179 



thwarted. To that pitch has now reached the morselling of 
the mind, that if to a Scandinavian it were told that his sole 
allies and only hope are to be fonnd on the Euxine and the 
Bosphorus, he would open eyes of stupid wonder or incredu- 
lous contempt. 

The imagination of the nations is dazzled and bewildered 
by the seizure of Constantinople, which they admit to be 
within her grasp — by the prospects of an Indian campaign, 
by her appearance on the heights of the Himalaya, or her 
establishment along the Persian gulf; but what are such 
prospective achievements compared with the fracturing and 
crushing already accomplished in Scandinavia — what danger 
is to be contemplated in her occupation of Constantinople by 
nations who have no terror for her settlement on the Sound ? 



POSTSCRIPT. 

July, 1853. 

Whence, I may now ask, did the Foreign Office derive its 
foreknowledge in March, 1844, of an event (the renun- 
ciation of the Duke of Augustenburg) accomplished only on 
the 30th of December, 1852 ? Why did it deprecate it at 
the one date and effect it at the other ? Europe is in the 
habit of learning some dozen years afterwards secret ar- 
rangements such as this — is it then the astuteness of English 
Diplomacy that is alarming ? 

The Archduchess, however, dies; Prince Frederick of Hesse 
is then cast aside. The new scheme devised is no other than 
a war. The Memoir which follows was drawn up during its 
course, and circulated in manuscript as a warning against the 
Treaty with which it would conclude, and which was in fact 
signed on the 8th of May, 1852, 



]80 



SCANDINAVIA. 



The statements in anticipation are, however, nearly what 
they would be as narrative, except, indeed, that I could not 
have anticipated such an abjectness in the statesmen of 
Europe that, in a Treaty given to ihem to sign, the establishing 
of a male succession is assigned as the reason for intro- 
ducing one through a Female. 



As this sheet is passing through the press I received a 
letter from Stockholm, of which I subjoin an extract, which 
shows that the Swedes have not yet forgotten Finland. To 
the commercial value of that country for Russia I had not 
referred, it is here indicated : — 

" Yesterday we had a visit from a young Swede, who surprised me 
by deeply regretting the loss of Finland. I said, 1 but surely, beau- 
tiful Norway is more than an equivalent for Finland.' He replied, 
'that they would gladly give up Norway for the sake of again 
possessing Finland ; that a great part of the revenues of Sweden were 
derived from Finland ; that it is a more fertile country than Norway j 
that it was their market for procuring the produce of Russia — tallow, 
hemp, flax, &c, which they can now only get at a much higher price.' 
He said that the Finlanders and the Swedes were much attached to 
each other, and that even now Sweden sends, amongst other things, 
quantities of buttons to Finland, as the inhabitants of that country 
will only wear on their coats the buttons that are made in Sweden. 
So it seems that Denmark suffers from the loss of Norway. The 
Norwegians hate the Swedes : Sweden suffers from the loss of Finland, 
and Eussia, as usual, gains," 



PART II. 

THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Rupture. 

The Duchies were heard of for the first time in 1843 ; but 
the Schism preceded the great events of Europe, and has 
extended beyondtheir term. Elsewhere a few months of agony, 
or at best an Army of Invasion, and all was over ; but this 
pitiable Denmark, andthese miserableDuchies return again and 
again upon the surface like the bubbling of a quagmire. A 
matter which might have been settled in five minutes, and States 
which could have been devastated from end to end in a week, 
have kept Europe in suspense for three years, during which 
it might have been supposed that frightful catastrophes had 
exhausted the susceptibility of men. 

A member of the old Dynasty of Oldenburgh sits on the 
Throne of Eussia, and she of all the Powers of Europe alone 
holds back ! It is the Government which has pursued 
a course of the most undisguised violence in the remotest 
regions of the East, that is careless of its political and dynastic 
interests in a European kingdom of such close neighbourhood 
and such vast importance 1 But has she not renounced her 
Eights, and having given this proof of disinterestedness, is 
not her abstinence a delicacy which deserves respect ? Let 
us see. 

Charles Frederick, Representative of the Junior or Gottorp 



182 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



line, having, during the Swedish war, lost Schleswig, and 
retaining only a portion of Holstein, but being according to 
the peculiar and anomalous practice of these Duchies co- 
regent with the king, sought in 1720 the support of Peter I 
of Bussia. 

That monarch hastened to profit by an opportunity so 
favourable for obtaining at once the control over both the 
Scandinavian Kingdoms, for the Duke of Holstein had claims, 
or rather pretensions, on the Crown of Sweden which were 
not unfavourably regarded by a powerful party in that country. 
By espousing his cause Peter hoped to advance the two great 
objects he had then at heart — objects intimately connected, 
though apparently most incongruous — the acknowledgment 
of the assumed title of Emperor, and the emancipation of 
Eussian vessels from the Sound dues. Prussia had at once 
acknowledged the title, and appears to have done so under 
the belief that it was to confer some supremacy in the North 
in regard to communications by water, such as belonged to the 
old Emperors of Germany in regard to those by land ; and that 
consequently the navigation of the Baltic would be opened. 
Under similar impressions Denmark had refused to concede 
the title. The two demands had been simultaneously pressed 
at Copenhagen and equally resisted by the Danes ; matters 
being in this position, Peter required the reinstatement of the 
Duke of Holstein — and by threatening a descent expected to 
exhaust Denmark by preparatives, or to threaten her into 
submission. 

"His Majesty, " says an old writer, "had seen himself the 
Court of Denmark, and was acquainted with her genius and 
ministry, which made him seem resolved to pursue the matter 
he had in dispute with her. He had two pretensions on that 
Crown : one was the restitution of the dominions taken from 
the Duke of Holstein ; the other the freedom of his ships in 
the Sound. The Eussian Emperor imagined that he now saw 
a favourable opportunity to strike this double blow ; for if 
he beat the Danish Squadron built by his example, or by 
way of precaution, nothing could hinder his making a descent 



THE RUPTURE. 



1S3 



in Jutland and Holstein; but be this as it may, by this 
management he obliged Denmark to run into such expenses 
every year as very much drained their coffers."* 

Peter, however, saw that something more might be made 
out of the case than a mere temporary embarrassment to 
Denmark; and that by connecting the claims of the Duke 
with the Imperial House, he might extend the bounds of the 
inheritance of ambition which he left to his successors ; he 
therefore conferred upon the Duke the hand of his daughter, 
and the solemnization of this marriage was the last act of 
his reign and life. This was the first alliance of the Czars 
with a Princely House, and even if the event proved not as 
brilliant as might be anticipated, the concession was small of 
a daughter doubly illegitimate, f 

Catherine, his widow and successor, was well disposed 
to carry out his views in this respect, when she too was re- 
moved from the troubles of this earth. The dissensions of 
the House of Russia entirely altered the dispositions of her 
successors, and the Gottorp claims found no longer support in 
the policy of that Government. 

The King of Denmark now negotiated with the Emperor 
as head of the German Empire, of which Holstein is a fief; 
and a Treaty was signed between them, by which the claims 
of the Duke of Holstein on the Duchies were set aside, and 
a compensation of 1,000,000 crowns allowed (if claimed 
within a certain time). To this Treaty i; the Empress Anne 
of Russia acceded. -Nevertheless, the Duke rejected with 
scorn the indemnity, and indignantly protested against this 
attempted interference with his Rights. His son, afterwards 
raised to the Imperial Throne on renouncing Protestantism, 

* Motley's Life of Peter I, v. hi, p. 338. 

t The husband of Catherine and the wife of Peter, Eudocia 
Lapoukin, were both alive when she was bom ; and therefore she and 
her son and her sister Elizabeth were not so much as mentioned on 
the succession of Anne. 

X The prototype and antitype of the Treaty of the 8th May, 
1S52. 



184 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



under the name of Peter III, in like manner rejected the 
offered compensation, and refused to admit the validity of 
the Treaty. So soon as this unhappy Prince obtained pos- 
session of the sceptre, he prepared to recover his paternal 
inheritance. His suspected Lutheranism, his paraded " Ger- 
manism/' had rendered him obnoxious ; however, he had 
recovered by the first acts of his government the heart of 
the Ptussians, when these measures against Denmark* afforded 
to his wife (afterwards Catherine II) the means of casting 
him from a Throne to a Dungeon and a Tomb. 

That Revolution which changed the face of Europe was thus 
connected with the Duchies. The Danish minister and party 
(for Denmark then had a party at St. Petersburgh) lent, in 
common with those of Vienna and Versailles, their aid to 
Catherine, and w r ere initiated into the Conspiracy; on the 
moment of its triumph she conveyed to the Danish minister 
the assurance that he need be under no apprehension 
as to the Duchies ; but she carefully avoided concluding any- 
thing, and sent her husband's uncle, Prince George of Holstein, 
as Governor to Kiel. " Though she employed neither fleets 
nor armies, she kept that Court floating between hope and 
fear," f and so domineered no less imperiously at Copen- 
hagen than at Warsaw : it was enough to whisper the word 
" Holstein," to solve every difficulty, and to cause every 
obstacle to bend to her will. 

This course had, nevertheless, its inconveniences and 
limits ; the other powers were seriously indisposed, and at 
times resentful. The Incorporation of either Duchy was 

* In a despatch (not published) from Mr. Keith, to Lord 
Granville, July 12, 1762, giving an account of the dethronement of 
Peter III, it is stated that u the discontent among the guards was 
heightened by the resolution his Imperial Majesty had taken of 
carrying a great part of that corps into Germany, in his expedition 
against Denmark, which was a measure disagreeable to the whole 
nation, who stomached greatly then' being drawn into new expenses 
and new dangers for recovering the Duchy of Sleswick, which they 
considered as a trifling object, and entirely indifferent to Russia." 

t Castera, vol. ii, p. 239. 



THE BUPTUBE. 



185 



impracticable without war, and more might be gained by- 
cession than by possession. So in 1767 Catherine bargained 
for a conditional surrender of her son's rights, which was 
ratified by her son, afterwards the Emperor Paul, in 1773, — 
eleven years after her accession and pledge. Great were the 
rejoicings at Copenhagen : the event was celebrated by fes- 
tivities, and commemorated by a medal; the victory was 
attributed to the talents of Bernsdorf, but the honour was 
shared with the gold he had lavished at St. Petersburgh. 
It soon, however, appeared that a price had been paid in 
another coin, that of a Secret Alliance ; in consequence of 
which Denmark soon found herself constrained to join Eussia 
against Sweden, and henceforward bound in subserviency 
never afterwards to be broken. 

The " renunciation " amounted therefore to a bargain, and 
that of a flagitious nature. In reviewing the transaction, the 
disgusted reader will conclude by exclaiming, "so then this 
matter is settled;" it is but the commencement, and the 
discussions which are to ensue take their departure from the 
now admitted point of Denmark's obligations and Eussia's 
magnanimity. 

The claim of Eussia was twofold : it affected a portion of 
Schleswig, and a portion of Holstein ; the first was dropped 
entirely and unconditionally. The father of Peter had been 
even constrained to drop the title of Schleswig. England 
and Prance had bound themselves in a treaty of guarantee* 
to defend the King of Denmark in the possession of Denmark 
against " any foreign Power whatever who should come and 
cttaek it." Prussia, Austria, and even Eussia herself had 
acceded to this arrangement ; therefore no pretensions in 
1773 coidd be set up upon Schleswig, and yet it is her 
acknowledgment of the state of things that has been inter- 
preted a renunciation. 

* See Treaty with Sweden, 14th July, 1720 ; British Guarantee, 
16th July, 1720 ; of France, 18th August, 1720, severally renewed 
and confirmed, 16th April, 1727, and 15th March, 1742. 



186 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



As to Holstein, the claim itself bore but on a little more 
than a quarter of the Duchy, and was by no means a clear 
case. Its admission involved a division of the fief, the In- 
divisibility of which was a fundamental part of the Law by 
which Holstein could alone be inherited. Denmark had, 
therefore, open to her one of two courses, — that of resisting 
the claim, or of negociating for its abandonment. She took 
neither ; she admitted the claim, and submitted to its super- 
cession, — " hoc fons malorum." 

The claim was to slumber so long as the male line of 
Frederick III survived; then would arise the question 
of Agnatic and Cognatic succession between the Duchies 
and the Kingdom, — here Eussia waited for Denmark : that 
question could not fail to arise as she had an interest in 
raising it. The claim which she could not have enforced at 
the time, she gets acknowledged by postponing, and thus 
reserves to herself all the chances of a future disputed suc- 
cession for the Kingdom itself. 

It is not, however, the Secret Treaty which alone she 
obtained as immediate compensation ; she received another 
infinitely greater than the matter in dispute, giving her 
territory further to the west, lying between Germany and 
the sea, namely, the counties of Delmenhorst and Oldenburg. 
She did not alarm Europe by annexing them to her own 
dominions, but caused them, indeed, to be forgotten as 
Eussian territory, by another act of generosity : she erected 
them into the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, and placed them 
under the apparently independent sway of the Junior Branch 
of the House of Gottorp. 

It so happens, however, that these counties were not 
absolute Dependencies of the crown of Denmark, which could 
cede in them no more than the rights which itself possessed. 
That Tenure was limited to the male line of Frederick HI, 
and so in like'manner was Eussia's Eenunciation ; the bargain 
was therefore temporary on both sides. These countries had 
been transferred to Denmark in 1667 in consequence of an 
arrangement with the Duke of Pioen, the next heir to Gunther, 



THE RUPTURE. 



IS? 



the last Count, who died in that year, and on the condition that 
" if the male line of the Royal House should become extinct, 
" that the two counties should return to them and their male 
" descendants, and likewise to the Agnates of their princely 
"house."* 

I may here parenthetically observe that Bremen stands in 
the territory of Oldenburg as Hamburg does in that of 
Hoist ein ; that it commands the entrance of the Weser as 
Holstein does that of the Elbe. These two rivers are the 
sole outlets of Germany, and the possessor of them, if equally 
possessed of the Sound and the Eyder, holds the communi- 
cations of the whole of the North. 

The arrangement with Paul as to Holstein had therefore 
reference solely to the male descendants of Frederick ILL 
On their extinction the Holstein equivalent reverted to 
Russia, and the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg to the Duke of 
Augustenburg. 

With such claims and after such preparations, how are we 
to account for the fact that in the recent troubles we neither 
see her troops, nor hear her name, and that all the Powers 01 
the world, she excepted, are there interposing by arms, 
or interfering by Mediation, f By this prudent reserve 
w T hat fields are opened for adjustment — what a harvest spread 
for ambition. ! 

It is now assumed that on the failure of the male line of 
Frederick III, no pretensions can be put forward by the 
Agnatic line, and that the Duchies follow of right the same 
order of Succession as the Kingdom. It may be so, but so 
recently as 1843 the perturbation of the Danish Court and 
of the whole Monarchy on this score was so extreme that 
they hailed w T ith delight the marriage of Prince Frederick of 
Hesse with a daughter of the Emperor of Russia, as a means 
of escaping from Partition. This combination, however, 
failed by an accident such as even the best laid schemes are 

* Grriiner, p. 109. 

t At the time this was written Russia had not articulated a word 
in public. 



1&5 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



exposed to. The Archduchess died in giving birth to a dead 
child, and the Emperor was at once afflicted with the loss of 
a daughter and a Crown :* the daughter indeed could not be 
restored to life, but other means remained for securing the 
Crown. 

Shortly after the death of the Princess, a Eoyal Ordinance 
appeared, which became the signal of discontent for one 
portion of the possessions of the King of Denmark, and 
falsely directed the theories and ambition of the other. From 
that hour Denmark and the Duchies were established as 
having hostile interests in which were woven up on the one 
side the succession of the Crown with Local Eights, and on 
the other, the integrity of the Monarchy with Popular Privi- 
leges : I refer to the Letters Patent of 1846, which declared 
the succession according to the Lex Regia to be extended to 
the Duchies, but at the same time acknowledging that 
respecting " Holstein " there are circumstances which oppose 
our asserting with equal certitude the title of all our lines 
to this Duchy." Supposing this step to have been perfectly 
legal its effect was destroyed by this admission ; but it doubly 
unsettled the matter : first, by the manner in which it dealt 
with the Duchies ; secondly, by letting in the pretensions of a 
third Power — Eussia, while exciting the opposition of a neigh- 
bouring state, the German Confederation. The results of the 
measure were so unmistakeable that they must be assigned 
as its object, namely, the encouragement of the Duchies to 
resist, and the excitement of Denmark by their insolence and 
extravagance. To render this matter clear I must revert to 
the antecedent circumstances. 

The House of Gottorp, so long as it had been in possession, 
had done its best to assimilate Schleswig to Holstein, and to 
introduce German ideas together with the use of the German 
language. The University of Kiel had been established with 
that view, and education followed that impulse long after the 

* " Poor Emperor ! he has lost by one blow a daughter and a 

kingdom." — General SJcrznecM. 



THE BUPTUEE. 



189 



family had been swept away. The same policy had been 
recently revived by the Duke of Augustenburg, through a 
mere personal agency, partially making use of the Press. The 
Danish Government at both periods regarded this movement 
with indifference, and in fact, so late as the year 1842, no 
proposition of a specific kind had been uttered on either side. 
In that year the States of Holstein were the first to raise 
the question of succession by the simple declaration that it 
was uncertain, and the Royal Commissioner undertook to 
transmit to the Government the wishes of the Assembly that 
it should be settled in such a manner as to prevent any 
possible separation. On this the Diet of the Insular portion 
of Denmark declared itself for the application of the Suc- 
cession according to the Lex Regia to the Duchies. Now 
the States of Holstein were violently disturbed ; they pro- 
tested against the pretension of the Government to decide by 
itself the question of the Succession; and declared that 
Schleswig and Holstein were independent states hereditarily 
following the Agnatic Line. 

Such were the short and trifling antecedents, but they 
suffice to remove any possible delusion as to the peaceable 
submission of the Duchies* to an act of authority so inju- 
diciously exerted. 

It is further to be observed that at the very moment it was 
transmitted, the Lieutenant Governor was the Prince of 
Schleswig Holstein, and the Duke of Augustenburg, who has 
acquired the character of the first intriguer in Europe, held 
supreme influence in those Dependencies, So totally was 
neglected every precaution, that the Grand Duke of Olden- 
burg instantly transmitted his protest against the act to the 

* " Is it supposed that the Duke of Augustenburg will sell his 
birthright for a rness of pottage ? or is it expected that the people 
of the Duchies will yield ? They will not be coaxed, nor will they be 
menaced into unworthy submission. They do not want any com- 
promise, but they want that ' separate and equal station,' to which 
in such an event they are entitled by the laws of their c common 
country. 5 " — Germameus Vindecc, in the Times, January, 1816. 



190 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



Germanic Confederation. That body declared that the King 
of Denmark never could have intended what he had said, 
and that monarch politely acknowledged the correctness of 
their interpretation. Had the measure been a bond fide one, 
must not the sentiments of the Diet have been previously 
ascertained — must not the adhesion of at least the Gottorp 
Line been secured — and would not a Lieutenant Governor 
have been despatched to the Duchies qualified to cope with 
the influence of the Augustenburgs, and to cany out the 
ordinance ? 

But if the Duchies were intemperate, they were not revo- 
lutionary, if they were irritated by the letter of the King, 
they were attached to the succession of the Crown. But we 
have nothing to do with the Duchies, the power was in the 
hands of Denmark ; she therefore was responsible for the 
errors and acts of the Duchies no less than for her own ; 
everything was in her hands. That very agitation for the 
" Indivisibility " of the Duchies for which the war was made,* 
if unfounded in right, presented to the Danish Crown the 
most important securities, for it protected Denmark, or pro- 
perly handled would have protected her, from the invasion of 
Germanism, as formerly the Governing Union of these 
Duchies had protected her against Germany. 

The suggestion of the Letters Patent did not of course 
come from St. Petersburg, but from Paris ; it was offered as 
a means of escaping from Eussia.f At the time I was 

* Mr. Wegener, after showing that Schleswig and Holstein were 
separate Duchies originally belonging to different countries, and 
conjoined and disjoined through many centuries in various degrees 
by acts of violence or motives of expediency, exclaims, " And it is 
for this doctrine of Indivisibility that our country is deluged in blood, 
and Europe threatened with war." 

f At that moment the Spanish marriages were in preparation, 
and kouis Pliilippe was accused of seeking to gain Russia to secure 
himself against the effects of his rupture with England. The Times 
said he was ready, in return for some show of countenance from a 
Russian ambassador, "to sacrifice everything from Cracow to 



THE KUPTUKE. 



191 



made aware of the scheme by a letter, of which I obtained 
knowledge, from Christian VIII to the Due de Cazes, 
who had been sent for this purpose by Louis Philippe to 
Copenhagen. The Memoir of Mr. Bunsen has, however, 
since established the fact, as also that of an engagement on 
the part of France to support by arms the Danish Govern- 
ment if necessary.* 

The object of Christian VIII was to preserve the " Integrity 
of the Succession,' 5 a maxim soon converted into " In- 
tegrity of the Monarchy." Thus was let in " Union of 
Administration, 5 ' then came " Unity of Kepresentation." 
On the one side the sense of right was strained, on the other, 
the chord of ambition struck, — the passage was short to 
marshal glory, and that involved diplomatic composition. 
If you wish to lead an individual into a false course instil a 
fallacious maxim : how much easier with millions and with 
fallacious terms. 

The "Integrity of the Succession' 5 might have been secured 
in two ways : the establishment of the Cognatic Line in the 
Duchies, or of the Agnatic in the Kingdom. There was no 
difficulty in either. 

Before 1660 the Duchies and the Kingdom had been ruled 
by the same line of inonarchs for two hundred years, that 
line being hereditary in the Duchies, and maintained in 
Denmark in succession, although there only elective. In con- 
sequence of the Eevolution of that year, the Crown there was 
also rendered hereditary, but with the admission of females, 
and hence arose the difference between the succession of the 
two portions of the United State : but the Lex Eegia of 1665, 

Constantinople;" and the Morning Chronicle, the official organ, 
IDointed to the scaffold as the consequence of his betrayal of the 
interests of France and Europe. 

* " It was only too much to be feared that the plan now proposed 
was nothing but the execution of the project which the late French 
Government had recommended, and as it appears with a decided 
promise of French support against any claims of the Germanic 
Diet and the German Nation." — Bunsen, p. 31. 



192 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



was not a fundamental law, beyond the establishment of 
despotic power, and any successor of Frederick III could 
" alter, repeal, or dispense with" every existing law. Chris- 
tian VIII succeeded to this unlimited power and by a stroke 
of the pen could have brought back the old "Unity of 
Succession with the Duchies." 

Were it not so, the Law itself has been virtually repealed 
by being broken in two points, and these its principal pro- 
visions. It settles conjointly the succession of Denmark and 
Norway, expressly stating, in section 19, that both kingdoms 
" shall remain undivided in the possession of one absolute 
and hereditary King of Denmark and Norway." In section 
2fi it is enacted that the Kings of Denmark and Norway 
enjoy " uncircumscribed and unlimited power and authority 
in the strongest sense that any other Christian hereditary 
and despotic King can be said to enjoy the same, * * * * 
and for the further strengthening of the same, we will and 
command that whosoever presumes to speak or act 
anything which may be prejudicial to our absolute power and 
authority, be proceeded against as a traitor to our Crown 
and dignity, and be severely punished, as usual in cases of 
High Treason." 

Thus then the Lex Regia has been extinguished by the 
Congress of Vienna, and there no longer exists the Potentate 
from whom it emanated, viz. a King of Denmark and Nor- 
way. If it did remain in force Christian VIII would have 
been, and Frederick VII would be, together with the minis- 
ters of both, liable to the pains and penalties of high treason ; 
having plotted to subvert " that absolute sovereignty," by 
the introduction of a Constitutional form of government. 

It is to be remarked, that the hereditary and absolute 
character and quality of the Monarchy were esentially com- 
bined ; that the hereditary was auxiliary to the absolute ; that 
the absolute was the aim and purpose of the State reasons of 
that time : whence it is to be inferred that the absolute cha- 
racter cannot be attacked without destroying the hereditary, 
either in regard to the legal or the political view of the case. 



THE RUPTURE. 



193 



The object of the Revolution of 1660, was the establishment 
of despotic power : the introduction of a Constitution vitiates 
the proceeding, and nullifies all its consequences. It re- 
mained to revert to the anterior state, or to create a new one. 
In the one case the Crown of Denmark again becomes 
elective ; in the other, you must deal with the succession of 
the Crown as you have with the Institutions of the country. 

But supposing that Denmark had been indisposed to accept 
the Line of Augustenburg — a supposition not entertained at 
the time, it then would have remained to obtain the consent 
of the Duchies to the Cognatic succession under the Line of 
Hesse ; but in that case, it had to be proposed to them, not 
enforced on them. By this, course it certainly was possible to 
fail, but by the course adopted it was impossible to succeed, 
except indeed by civil war. The integrity of the succession 
had therefore been sacrificed to Prince Frederick of Hesse, * 
the son-in-law of the Emperor, who was himself excluded so 
soon as he lost his wife. No one has denied the facility of 
this adjustment. 

"It is clear,' 5 says Mr. Bunsen, "that the late King of 
Denmark might have easily prevented the disruption of his 
Estates, by establishing, in virtue of his absolute power, the 
male succession in Denmark. But whether an overthrow of 
the male succession in the Duchies flattered certain dynastic 
propensities (/) and national vanity (J), or offered the additional 
attraction of the prospects of getting rid of ancient incon- 
venient constitutional liberties (/), this very simple means has 
not been adopted."! 

A manner so lax of dealing with a question so grave, in 
a document purporting to be a State paper, put forth in justi- 

* What can be more strange than the dropping of this candidate? 
Would he not have served the purposes of the Treaty as well as 
Princess Louisa and her husband ? Is it not clear that the object 
was the displacing of the intervening heirs : who Russia chooses to 
put out of the way of course is never after heard of. There are cir- 
cumstances, however, of a delicate nature affecting the legitimacy of 
that family which have placed them at Russia's mercy. 

t Memoir to Lord Palmerston, p. 25. 

9 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



fication of an Invasion, and in prospect of an European war 
arising out of the event, fills the mind with astonishment. 
The only conclusion to be drawn is, that the case was inten- 
tionally embroiled. Every passion and every frailty of 
humanity, had been called forth to obscure the judgment of 
the parties in a matter in which a Foreign Power had so great 
an interest at stake. It was, in fact, a contest between the 
Eussian and Danish Cabinets : Denmark having no man equal 
to cope with those employed by Eussia, the consequences 
which have followed must, under similar circumstances, follow 
in every transaction, public or private. 

We now pass to the second stage : we have closed the 
chapter of "Integrity of Succession;" we come to that of "Inte- 
grity of Monarchy," — the generous concession of Legislative 
Amalgamation, replaces the abortive act of Arbitrary Power. 

It is in the spirit of our times, not by ambition, but on 
principle to concentrate power ; customs, rights, are held to 
be only distinctions which separate men and impair the strength 
of Governments. This is the blight on every political ex- 
periment ; by it despotism reaps the victory, whenever the 
people wins the battle. It does not therefore suggest of 
necessity any profound or malignant purpose to hear of a 
Constitution proposed by the Danish, or any other monarch, 
for " the whole of his States ; " yet a prince like Christian 
VIII, could not have fallen into such a scheme either through 
liberalism or inadvertence, which were neither to his nature, 
antecedents, nor his circumstances. In the case of fractions 
nearly equally balanced, the vulgar doctrines of Centralisation 
could not apply, and he had before his eyes the experience of 
surrounding nations. 

The last event which had disturbed the tranquillity and 
threatened the peace of Europe was an attempt to impose 
on a population of 300,000 souls, in the Pyrenees, the bene- 
fits of a liberal Constitution; and although the Queen of 
Spain at the head of ninety-seven and a half per cent, of the 
Spanish people, against two and a half per cent, was backed 
by the active interference of England, France, and Portugal, 
yet did she run a harrow risk of losing her Crown, and after. 



THE EUPTUEE. 



195 



the expenditure of forty millions sterling, and the periodical 
devastation of Spain during six years, did these ancient 
liberties of that trifling population triumph in the Convention 
of Bergara over the power and the wisdom of civilised and 
Constitutional Europe. 

Or going back to the last century, did not a similar cause 
bring on those disturbances of Europe which ended in the 
great Eevolution of France, and caused to England the loss 
of her magnificent Transatlantic possessions ? Was not this 
a result of her wishing to concentrate Administrative power, 
and giving undue extension to Parliamentary authority ? 

A more recent and apposite experience is presented by 
Eussia herself, — a fact which, though hidden from the eyes 
of Europe, could scarcely be unknown to Christain VIII. 
The Cossacks, little as it may be suspected abroad, are not a 
mere troop of irregular horse, but a constituted Eepublic 
separated from Eussia in a far more distinct manner than the 
Duchies are from Denmark ; they admit no Eussian to civil 
or military rank or post, and utterly repudiate the Eccle- 
siastical pretensions and usurpations of the official Eussian 
Church. Au Ukase was published assimilating their Admi- 
nistration to that of the other provinces of the empire : their 
contingent had by precaution been already despatched to dis- 
tant frontiers ; nevertheless the Deputy Hetman instantly 
sent orders for the regiments of reserve to rendezvous at the 
point of their territories nearest to Moscow. The Emperor 
did not accuse them of beginning the war, but with an army 
of 1,200,000 men at his disposal explained the Ukase as a 
mistake. 

It is possible to conceive that Eussia should seek to get 
rid of a Constitution which interfered with her military 
system and religious unity — that the doctrinaires of Madrid 
should attempt to efface a contrast that put to shame their 
constitutional freedom when sustained only by a population 
insignificant in numbers — that England should have erred in 
estimating the strength and dispositions of a colonial popula- 
tion, unarmed, unorganised, unrepresented, and only an out- 
lying portion of her immense domains ; but that Denmark 



106 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



should have, out of her own head, devised an Administrative 
union with the Duchies is too preposterous to believe. The 
Government of Copenhagen had neither project of conquests 
nor of religious concentration with which their rights or creed 
interfered ; these provinces were neither insignificant nor 
remote ; there could be no mistake as to their disposition or 
their power to resist ; they compose two -fifths of the popula- 
tion of the kingdom, and constitute one half of its wealth ; 
without them Denmark is nothing — less than nothing with 
them in arms against her. Denmark furnishes exclusively 
the maritime force of the kingdom, of little or no avail 
against the Duchies : and a contest would assuredly give to 
them powerful allies, and draw down on her the chances of 
a terrible retribution. Dismemberment was not then the 
limit of the consequences to be apprehended from such a 
design, but was one so evident as not to escape the penetra- 
tion even of a child. 

Christian VIII is gathered to his fathers, and "Fre- 
derick YII reigns in his stead. The dying King addresses a 
letter imploring him to walk in his footsteps ; the successor 
with Oriental deference kisses the signature, and with filial 
piety obeys the command. Within three days the benevolent 
intentions of the new monarch are announced by a Procla- 

m yoK srfj Jo 

The Constitution was not, however, absolutely enacted. 

The King called on the different portions of the kingdom to 

elect in common with himself, men of trust and experience 

to advise respecting it. He declared at the same time that 

the " existing Laws and Institutions of the Provincial States" 

should be respected, and also " the existing union of the 

Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein." The Duchies were not 

seduced by the offer of equality, the temptation of controlling 

the Exchequer, or of seeing the Parliament held in their 

territory alternately with Copenhagen : but they did not 

conceive that the case was desperate, and proposed to comply 

with the orders of the King to select advisers ; these were 

not empowered to concur in any centralized representation. 

and were intrusted to speak and advise in an opposite sense. 



Up to the middle of February, 1848, nothing had been 
done that could not be recalled. The caution of the mode 
of procedure, the determined manner in which it was met, 
alike gave promise of the adoption of a course which should 
prevent the catastrophe of civil war; and this solution was 
the more to be expected from the fact that, in the then 
reigning agitation of men's minds, the Crown of Denmark, 
which had ever had a leaning towards those Dependencies 
which, in the Chancery style of Denmark were " personal" 
to itself, had in the Duchies a sure support. The Dews of 
Faction, however, watered the Seeds which an Enemy had 
sown, and the popular party prepared the way for Eussia's 
Combinations at Copenhagen no less effectually than at Berne 
or Bucharest, Paris or Palermo. We must now glance at the 
internal events which reversed in a few days the relative 
position of the parties. 

There were on the accession of Frederick VII, three 
parties : that of the Court, that of the Liberals, and that of 
the Duchies. The Court looked to the Duchies as a Bulwark 
against the popular Invasion, and deprecated an amalgamation 
which would reduce them to a powerless minority. It sided 
therefore, with the Duchies, and both were united against the 
Radicals. The objects of the Liberals were the diminishing 
of the Royal Prerogative, the establishing of a Representative 
Constitution, and a Centralized Administration; with these 
views, the facsimile of those of Paris, they associated c{ Dan- 
ism/' the counterpart of the "Germanism" of Frankfort 
In both points the obstruction they met, and the danger they 
had to apprehend, proceeded from the Duchies : there was." an 
army of which the King could dispose — there a place of 
refuge whither in a possible contingency he might fly. The 
Duchies at once presented a popular triumph to achieve, a 
Danish territory to assimilate, and a German principle to 
subdue. * £r " sffsgfidnsqoO iiiw ytetenzsils pcomsf 

The practical point was the rupture of their Federal Bond.* 

* Their watchword was " Denmark to the Eyder." No doubt, Den- 
mark extended to the Eyder and beyond iti it was not the question 
of power that was raised, but the figment of uniformity, and this 



193 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



Holstein, backed by the German people, and linked to the 
German Confederation, it was dangerous to attack, and hope- 
less to subdue ; Schleswig could be attacked and subdued 
only by isolating it. The plan was therefore simply this — to 
incorporate Schleswig and cut Holstein adrift ; hence the 
anomaly of a simultaneous proposition of "Incorporation" 
and " Separation." By this single blow they expected to get 
rid of German interference, to extend Danish nationality, to 
deprive the Crown of a German fief, to take from it the sup- 
port of the Aristocratic Duchies, and place it in a position in 
which it could no longer resist the elevation of Parliamentary 
Privilege on the ruins of royal Prerogative and Popular Eights. 

How had such a debate been reserved for the fourth century 
of the co-existence of these Estates ? for one half that period 
the Danish Crown had been sufficiently despotic and not 
moderately ambitious. Had they become more powerful, or 
the Duchies more weak? No, ''Germanism" and "Danism" 
had arisen. 

Now will be understood the object of the proposal of the 
King, in the nomination of " men of experience." He was 
himself to nominate sixteen, eight for Denmark, and eight for 
the Duchies ; Denmark was to choose eighteen, and the 
Duchies as many. The sixteen nominees and the eighteen 
men of the Duchies secured to him a majority against the 
Piadicals.f 

Now came the news from Paris. Everywhere it is the 
same story : be it Bucharest — be it Palermo — be it Presburg 
— be it Yienna — be it Berlin — be it Copenhagen — be it 
Ptendsburg ; at each events are, at the close of February, 

furor of " Denmark to the Eyder" has deprived of all terror, 
" Russia to the Sound." 

f The Royal Power was attacked through the Duchies : the Court 
Ministry were held up to public odium as " Danish Schleswig- 
Holstein." In the Fcedrelandet (the movement paper) the Ministry 
of Count Molkte is denounced for having for its principal object 
"the preservation of Holstein," and he is charged with being equally 
ready to sacrifice cc Danism in the one Duchy, and Germanism in the 
other." 



THE RUPTURE. 



199 



1848, conducted to that point where the narrator has to say, 
"Now carne the news of Paris, and the explosion took 
place : " " Preordinations of good luck " * too systematic to 
be misunderstood ! 

The Molkte ministry fell. The men of the Clubs, the men 
whose watchword was " Denmark to the Eyder," who had 
threatened to write with the sword the laws of Denmark on 
the backs of the Duchies, came into power. There were no 
longer three parties: the Court was absorbed into the Liberals, 
and nothing stood in the way of the plans of the Casino. 
Schleswig was now to be a Danish province, and Hoist ein 
cast to Frankfort, or any other monster, with an appetite for 
the meal. 

These measures were of course no justification for the re- 
volt of the Duchies, but is it to be expected that the people 
of the Duchies should be more wise than the people of 
Copenhagen? the insanity was in the air, and each has 
load enough of shame without added thereto that of 
criminating the other. The Danes deny to-day that intimi- 
dation was used to their Sovereign ; the Duchies, that they 
had claimed anything beyond their former privileges ; in fact 
they both had a fit of delirium which they have now forgotten. 
If both were wrong, so both were right ; for the wrong of each 
was the justification for the other. 

The following statement has been furnished to me as 
explanation and justification of the proceedings of Denmark : 

" On January 28th, 1848, the King signed an ordinance, by 
which he conferred a Constitution on his States, with a common 
Chamber for the Kingdom and the two Duchies, to be assem- 
bled regularly at fixed periods in places to be determined 
afterwards, and alternately in the Kingdom and the Duchies. 

" The Constitution was to be submitted for examination 
to Deputies, of which the majority should be elected by the 
Provincial States, the same number for the Duchies as foi 
the Kingdom, though the population of the former was not 
equal to that of the Kingdom. 

"The Separatist party in the Duchies did not conceal 
# Lord Malmesbury. 



200 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 

their dissatisfaction at this Royal act of favour. On the 1 7th 
of February, 1848, an assembly was held at Kiel to consult 
on the steps to be taken, and it was decided to choose Depu- 
ties opposed to the Union. 

"Whilst parties were in this position of mutual apprehen- 
sion and embarrassment, intelligence arrived of the events at 
Paris, and the Schleswig-Holsteiners regarded the opportu- 
nity arrived for realizing 'those projects. A meeting of 
members of the States of the two Duchies took place at 
Eendsburg the 18th of March, 1848, when it was determined 
to send a deputation to Copenhagen to represent to the 
King the desires of his subjects in the Duchies, and the 
state of the countiy. 

" The establishment of a separate Constitution for Schles- 
wig Hoist ein, based on universal suffrage — formation of a 
civic guard — complete freedom of the Press and of meeting, 
— immediate union of Schleswig to the Confederation — im- 
mediate dismissal of President Scheel : such were in substance 
the demands addressed to the King. 

" Messrs. Beseler, Keventlow, Preetz, and Bargum, were 
authorised again to convene the Assembly in case of emergency. 
The Deputation left Kiel the 21st. 

"The news of the Assembly at Eendsburg reached 
Copenhagen early in the morning on the 20th, together w T ith 
the intimation that the Deputation woidd arrive two days 
after. The sensation it caused was very great. That evening 
(20 March) there teas a prat meeting at the Casino (club), 
when it was determined to solicit the king to change his 
ministry and elect another who had sufficient determination 
and energy to defend the rights of the crown in regard to 
Schleswig, whilst yielding to Germany what should be 
demanded in regard ta Holstein. The following morning 
a deputation presented an address to the King, who replied 
that the Ministry was dissolved, and another should be 
formed, which did not take place until three days afterwards 
(24th). It is superfluous to repeat that the King could not 
give an answer to the Deputation of Kiel before the formation 
of the New Ministry. They therefore could not leave Copen- 



THE KUPTUEE. 201 

liagen before the evening of the 24th. But before their 
departure the revolt had ..already broken out in Holstein. 
The night of the twenty-third or twenty-fourth, without 
waiting for the reply of the King, it was decided at Kiel to 
appoint a Pro visional Government. The Prince of Augus- 
tenburg immediately repaired to Eendsburg on the morning 
of the twenty-fourth, where he, seduced the garrison to 
embrace the side of the revolt, on the pretext that the King 

JS 8DB1CT 2LOOJ tsSniOjJvJL 07/T 9DJ 10 SdftBJGi OflJ JO BlQ(i[£lSm 

zvas a prisoner at Copenhagen. L lo m r ^ . j 

This ex parte statement of Denmark may, if we except the 
opinion respecting the Eoyal Act of Favour in the conferring 
of a common Constitution, be taken, also as that of the 

After all, Denmark has lost the Duchies and herself ; what 
satisfaction can she derive from saying we can demon- 
strate the Divisibility of the Duchies * — we can prove that 
the Agnates had no rights r^p tWrpiT^o. \ 

About the same time that the Duchies elected Christian I 
the Principalities on the , Danube gave themselves to the 
Sultans of Turkey. In the course of the four hundred years 
that have since elapsed, that Empire has passed through the 
extremest vicissitudes; the Provinces in question have been 
the field of furious wars and the object of the fiercest con- 
tention. There is no region, probably, of the earth that has 
more severely suffered, and that under circumstances which 
might justify the people in charging their misery upon their 
Sovereign. Contrast now the dispositions of Wallachia and 
Moldavia towards Turkey, and those of Schleswig-Holstein 
towards Denmark : " Turkey to the Pruth " was never a 
watchword in the Streets of Constantinople. 

" These provinces were not a conquest of the sword, they 

* Mr. Wegener lays great stress- on the change that was made in 
the Arms of Denmark in 1721, by removing those of Sehleswig from 
the Shield of Pretence, and placing it in chief in quarter with the 
Danish Arms. The argument is indeed conclusive against the case 
set up by the Duchies, but it establishes against Denmark all that it 
^■l^pQt^^^W^igJ^joo aiolaisili Y3ffT yxhisiLM vtsYi to 



202 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



yielded themselves voluntarily to the Empire, and the Sultan 
has no power to dispose of them save by their own consent. 5 * 
Such on one occasion was the reply of the Porte to a 
Foreign Power. With such maxims a state may endure even 
in face of Eussia, and even without capacity. 

The crisis of the Duchies in 1840 had its exact parallel on 
the Danube. The Principalities went quite as far as the 
Duchies : they declared their entire Administrative Inde- 
pendence, inaugurated their Provincial Government, and 
instituted even their Civic Guard. On the other hand 
the Porte went quite as far as the Casino Government 
of Copenhagen : it seized the chiefs invited to a confer- 
ence and carried them off ; it fulminated a manifesto against 
the Revolution, and appeared ever to sanction the en- 
trance of foreign troops to put it down. But yet there 
was no animosity of the Porte against the TTallachians, 
or of the YTallaehians against the Porte : on the con- 
trary, there was the most perfect reliance of each upon 
the other : how are we to account for this extraordinary 
difference in exactly similar cases ? It is simply that the 
Wallachians and the Turks were men of more sense than the 
Danes and the Schleswig-Holsteiners ; but sense is natural 
to man — folly is exotic ; it is never reason that has to 
be accounted for, but error. The Turks and the Walla- 
chians, besides the advantage of having no theories, had the 
good fortune to know their enemy : it was the presence 
of 60,000 Russians which constituted the bond of their 
amity ; it was the concealment of the hand of Russia that 
suffered the mutual animosities of Denmark and of the 
Duchies to fasten upon each other. Look at the results. 
Schleswig-Holsteiners ! where now are your " ancient 
rights ? " — Danes ! where your "liberal constitution? "* 

* " Pendant que les autres nations de 1' Europe sont aux prise? 
avec des questions de vie materielle et d'existance soeiale, le peuple 
russe vous demande la Turquie, (La Danemark) en compensation de 
son servage et en recompense de sa docilite." — L' Occupation de 
Constantinople. Par un Diplomate Russe, p. 5. 



203 



CHAPTER II. 

Interposition of Prussia. 

The Duchies are up, Rendsburg is surrendered by the 
Danish Commandant in his dressing-gown, and they muster 
about 5,000 men. But the Danes, who had already been 
taking their measures for the occupation of the country, 
suddenly enter with double that force, drive them from their 
positions, and they fly to the Eyder ; and here this silly 
affair would have ended had not a foreign army presented 
itself on their path. The Quixotic regiments were not 
transported by a magician's wand, but conveyed to the spot 
comfortably by a railway t they were no band of sympa- 
thisers — no, nor even an Auxiliary Legion : they were the 
troops of a Great Power which, by a single word, might have 
stopped the quarrel. Now, without so much as the mere 
form of a Proclamation, they enter the territories of the 
Danish King, they do not, even like footpads, say, " Stand, 
and deliver !" 

This act has been explained, simply with reference to 
immediate interests and ephemeral doctrines : the sympathy 
of the Germans for the Duchies, the necessity in which the 
King of Prussia stood to conciliate favour at Berlin, the 
necessity of crushing the revolutionary element,* the influ- 

* " It was only the wish to prevent the [Radical and Republican 
Elements of G-erraany from exercising any pernicious influence that 
had moved Prussia to the steps she had adopted ; the idea of a Korth- 
Aibingian Republic being apt to endanger Denmark as well as the 
neighbouring frontier of Germany." — ISote of Major Wildenbruch, 
the Prussian Plenipotentiary to the Danish Government, April 8, 
18-18. 

" The King considered himself in duty bound to take measures in 



204 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



ence which had been acquired over him by the Duke of 
Augustenberg, &c. Xo doubt that the movement was 
popular at Berlin ; but will this account for the conduct 
of the King of Prussia ? Without the encouragement which 
he had afforded, and of which the evidence is to be 
found in his autograph letter to the Duke of Augustenberg, 
never could the Duchies have hazarded that step ; the 
declaration of his resolution to maintain the rights of the 
Agnatic Princes and the Duchies, had it been a bond jide 
one, would have been transmitted to Copenhagen, not to 
Augustenberg. He prolonged the war, by ensuring the defeat 
of his own troops and his allies ; he sacrificed at the settle- 
ment all he had contended for by arms ; not being thereto 
constrained, but acting as a party to entrap others. To 
understand, then, the motives of Prussia, we must revert to 
antecedent transactions explanatory of her permanent interests, 
engagements, and necessities, to odqoiq dziiaom bio sdi yfqqis 
At the close of the last war, Prus:ia had been reduced to the 
condition of a third-rate Power; at the peace, she was recon- 
structed into one of the first order, through the influence of 
Russia . All her neighbours were dismembered for her advan- 
tage, — Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Hanover, Saxony, and 
Poland. It was to coerce the resistance of the Congress in this 
respect, that the Emperor Alexander spoke of the " million of 
bayonets confided to him by Providence." Russia did not act 
by caprice, but by careful and profound calculation ; she was, 
in fact, securing to herself' a "German Empire under a second 
name/' 3 Talleyrand so successfully strove at the first Con- 
gress of Vienna to convince the other Powers of this danger, 
that he induced England, Prance. Austria, and Sweden to 
enter into a secret defensive alliance against Russia and 
Prussia ; to counteract which, as already stated. Eussia had 
recourse to the opening to Xapoleon of his prison doors at 
ai gioa^do a'sieauH dim bsillsj vftaezs mzaui*! to £niZ sift 
order to pre-?-: the movement in Lcmbardy, from taking a Repuc- 
h-;:e_: hiw — Xote "by the Sardinian Minister Pareto to the 

British Ambassador at Turin, March 23, 1S4S, 



INTERPOSITION OF PRUSSIA. 



205 



Elba. From that time the conduct of Prussia has invariably 
confirmed, alike the fears of Talleyrand, and the expectations 

oPI&fl8$a.9*fr idi jfrxiooo/5 eiffi Iliw jnd j mhdfL Tsftrqoq 
During the Russo-Turkish war of IS 28-9, a Memoir was 
drawn up by Russia's ablest diplomatist, on her relations 
with the different Powers of Europe; that memoir has been 
published, and removes every ambiguity ; Prussia is disposed 
of in a single and short paragraph, as a Government which 
can give to Russia no umbrage. (i Prussia," says he, [J a son 
role tout fait" Her role is that of encroachments {empiete- 
rnens), " and the objects of her ambition under Iter Iw.nd. " It 
was in Germany that these encroachments were to take effect 
— she was to balance, then subvert, Austria. The present 
King did not yield to his predecessor in those qualities and 
in that ambition (if the word may be so employed) which 
had been signalised in his predecessor. To him was made to 
apply the old monkish prophecy, 
silt ot b9ouLsT mod l^dm^^t^st^^k^dl io 980 
-HO09T eBi7 ede t aoB9^©rfaajBa^ •ej-si-biid I 
And it failed not to be remarked that his accession had 
occurred in the corresponding year of this century to that of 
Frederick the Great in the last, and of the great Elector in 
the one which had preceded it. Prussia was one of the first 
victims of the explosion of 1S43 ; she was not only swept 
internally, but was nearly driven, by the revolutionary fury, 
against her northern Protector. The King succeeded in 
turning on the Poles the popular frenzy excited against 
Russia \ then a diversion was furnished in the Duchies for 
the young fervour so troublesome at Frankfort, so alarming 
at Berlin. But it was not that a door was to be opened to 
military enterprise ; revolution was to be shamed by discom- 
fiture, and to be put down by disgrace. 

It thus happened that the immediate objects at home of 
the King of Prussia exactly tallied with Russia's objects in 
Denmark ; and the service which would have been required 
from his unwilling obedience was no less grateful to his 
character than convenient T or his position. 



206 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



An Invasion is, however, a war; and although we have 
dispensed in these days with the forms requisite to legalise 
war, there has, as yet, been no such act without a printed 
gloze of some description to cover it; an Ultimatum — a 
Proclamation — or, at all events, a Treaty, or a Protocol. 
Here there was nothing of the kind. It is the first point 
that presents itself, and it is of the deepest importance, 
because such a document must have appeared unless there 
was an impossibility in the way ; the impossibility was that 
of adducing any specific statement whatever. The Prussian 
Government could have committed itself, then, to no asser- 
tion, either in respect to what it claimed, or to what it 
purposed. A declaration of war required a previous demand 
of redress, and there was none ; a manifesto required at 
least an enunciation of principles where the purpose was to 
betray the very cause that was professed; the Prussian 
Government could march its troops, but could not open its 
mouth. 

In this dilemma it adopted the expedient of publishing a 
pamphlet in London, to which importance was given by calling 
it a Memoir addressed to LordPalmerston by Mr.Bunsen. But 
even this pamphlet does not professedly undertake to explain 
the Invasion and to justify the war — it is a long, rambling piece 
of special pleading, and the Invasion is slipped in in a post- 
script, as if a mere piece of news, confirmatory of the writer's 
apprehensions. The Prussian Minister is careful privately to 
throw discredit upon his own production, by describing it as 
the child of enthusiasm and zeal, in the parturition of which, 
he had obeyed the mere instincts of his generous nature, and 
which was likely to compromise his official, and to extinguish 
his diplomatic, existence. Mr. Bunsen has at least proved 
that in this age devotion is not extinct, and that men are to 
be found ready, like the Persian of old, to undergo any mutila- 
tion of face or fame, when there are despots to serve and 
Babylonians to circumvent. 

Stripped of misrepresentation and other verbiage, Mr. 
Bunsen's argument is this: Schleswig andHolstein are inse- 



INTERPOSITION OE PRUSSIA. 207 



parable; therefore, Holstein being a German fief, Sehleswig is 
German also : and thus, Prnssia is justified in making proposals 
to cut Sehleswig in two ; because the Danes reject the proposal 
they make an "attack on Germany," and Prussia is jus- 
tified in " repelling force by force. 55 When in the Postscript 
he learns that this force has been employed, the Prussian 
troops are described as having entered to support the "basis 
of mediation, 55 and because " to have waited one 

MOMENT LONGER WOULD HAVE STULTIFIED GEE-MANY. 55 * 

After this the King of Denmark is frankly told that he has 
been befooled from the beginning, ec for that nothing was 
easier than to have settled the succession, without mixing up 
with it other matters. 55 Why was not this stated in 1846, or 
in 1844 ? Why is it urged in 1848 as a railing accusation? 

But this is a Diplomatic Document : where is the reply ? 
what did England say to it — what to its publication ? 
Here is an enigma. Did England accept this view of the 
case, or did she not ? two months solved the difficulty ; 
after the parties are fully compromised, England steps in 
with an offer of mediation, which is the echo of Mr. Bunsen's 
Memoir, and the counterpart of Eussia's proceedings. f 

Now let us see in w T hat strain Mr. Bunsen deals with 
Eussia. It is utterly impossible that here we shall not 
detect him if he be playing false. He begins by asserting (at 
p. 3), that the question possesses no European interest because 
of the generosity of Eussia in renouncing her claims. Was 
this true ? If false could he be mistaken. Eurther on (p. 19), 
he contradicts himself, not by saying that Eussia had not 
renounced, but by asserting that she had no claims to 
* Memoir, p. 58. 

t " First, that the Duchy of Sehleswig be divided into two parts 
with reference to the G-erman or Danish nationality of its inhabita?its } 
the southern and Grerman part being to be called the Southern Duchy ; 
the Northern or Danish part being to be called the Northern Duchy. 
On the other hand, Northern Sehleswig would be attached by its 
law of succession to the Crown of Denmark, and the sovereignty op 
that Dtjchy would be inseparably united with the Danish Crown." 
—Lord Palmersioris Proposal of Mediation^ June 23, 1848. 



208 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



renounce. AY hat right had Mr. Bunsen thus to dispose of 
the claims of Paissia j and if it be the Prussian government 
that speaks, how has it not ascertained the views of the 
Eussian government respecting its own claims. Can anv 
one believe that the Minister of a Power so dependent, and 
an individual so astute, should venture such a sneer on such 
an assertion of his own caprice? Such language on the part 
of Prussia and such conduct coidd never have been endured 
had it not been commanded. 

While Mr. Bunsen relieves the mind of Europe from any 
anxiety in regard to Paissia in respect to this special case, 
he is far from blind to her general purposes; in this 
respect no man can be more watchful, or alert. He 
places before the Danes and the Duchies, who, of course, 
had never dreamt of such a thing, the appalling fact (after 
the quarrel is made) of the longing to possess the Sound * by 
a neighbouring sovereign who " never yet refused the appeal 
of a king whose despotic tendencies had aroused his subjects 
against him." 

It never rains but it pours ; Mr. Bunsen might have done 
something if he presented his one Giant to the undivided 
gaze of his audience, but he manufactures a second ; Eussia 
is ambitious, but France is active. If Eussia covets the 
Sound and loves Despotism, these after all are mere affections 
of the mind, — the practical danger is from France, who has 
prompted the schemes of the King of Denmark — who in fact 
has created the Schism in the Duchies ! 

* Mi. Bunsen. on phuosopliical grounds, namely, the civilising 
and tlie ■ Japhetising " of the Orientals, professes his anxious desire 
to see the power of Eussia established on the Bosphorus. On Ger- 
manic grounds, he devotes himself to preventing her ascendancy 
on the Sound. He is, no doubt, not destitute of valid reasons 
by which to reconcile the apparent discrepancy, if discrepancy there 
be. To his diplomatic management Eussia is chiefly indebted for 
the present result i she is possessed of no agent more indefatigable or 
tortuous : none have worked for her with more consciousness or 
premeditation ; he is to be found at every corner with a different 
story, and able to effect for her what her avowed agents could not 
accomplish, 



INTERPOSITION OF PRUSSIA. 209 



How, it may be asked, could bare decency permit the 
introduction into a State paper of propositions so unseemly 
and contradictions so preposterous ? It is managed in this 
manner ; the " Memoir " is preceded by a " Preface," and that 
" Preface' 5 is under another name. The anonymous indi- 
vidual, if I may so call him, is the introducer of Mr. Bunsen 
to the British Public; it is Mr. Bunsen who publishes the 
Introducer and the Introduction ; the Memoir attacks Prance 
the Introduction Russia. 

Although it is anticipating events, yet with a view of present- 
ing connectedly the part which Prussia has taken I shall here 
introduce her share in the conclusion of the matter. After 
being a belligerent in two campaigns, having taken up arms 
for the defence of the rights of the Duchies and of the Duke 
of Augustenburg, she withdrew from the contest, making a 
separate peace with Denmark in w T hich nothing w r as stipulated 
in reference to the eauses of the war. It would have been 
natural that such conduct should have been cloaked by some 
form of conditions, however deceptive — some pretext of nego- 
tiation, however hollow ; but exactly the opposite course was 
pursued. She paraded, and in an epigrammatic form, her 
treachery to the Ally whom she had compromised ; and the 
peace she signed was know T n throughout the World as the 
"Paix pure et simple." This " Pure and simple peace" was 
a peace with a secret article, and that secret article was an 
engagement to sanction beforehand whatever the King of 
Denmark chose to do.* Why was this article secret ? 

Having thus tied up her hands, she ostensibly figured in the 
conferences as a recusant. She refused to sign, with England, 
Denmark, and Russia, the Protocol originally proposed, and 
while she thus held out to the Duchies the semblance of pro- 
tecting their interests, she made her adhesion to the Protocol 
■mdi -priBq^oeiB 11 g^omsqssoeib toiBqqe odt slbrrocm ot ifoiriw ^d 
* " Article Secret, le 2 Juillet, 1850, ;l ; oitemofca 
" S. M. le Roi de Prusse s' engage a prendre art aux negotiations 
dont S. M. le Roi de Danemarc prendra l'initiative a l'effet de regler 
l'ordre de succession dans les etat3 reunis sous le sceptre de S. M. 
DaHfifisfeffloo &$m%& bewoja i$d djwfw isd idi ioalb o i side bm s ^TOia 

dzdqmoQDB 



210 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



contingent on the modifying of one of the original phrases in 
such a manner as to exclude the very mention of their 
existence, and the substitution of another which implied that 
" Integrity of the Monarchy " which has been construed to 
signify the extinction of the Duchies.* 

When this Protocol was converted into a Treaty — the 
Treaty of the 3th of May, 1S52. her Minister in London was 
actively employed at once in extorting the reluctant adhesion 
of the English Ministry and in threatening the parties whose 
rights were disposed of into submission and silence. 

A course so systematic could not have resulted from mere 
blindness. The Cabinet of Berlin must have been folly 
possessed of the bearings of the case as affecting no less the 
interests of Prussia, than of Denmark, and of Europe. These 
I am able to give in the words of the Prussian Minister of 
Foreign Affairs when the Treaty was signed. 

" Having been for some time occupied with this affair. I 
have come to a most intimate conviction concerning the 
embarrassments and positive disadvantages to which Prussia 
would expose herself by the signature of the London Protocol. 
No human intellect has as yet been able to devise any advan- 
tage that might be obtained for Prussia by such a proceeding, 
for there is not a fable in the range of mythology less credible 
than the supposition, that the policy of Denmark should more 
closely join the North of Germany and Prussia in consequence 
of the union with the Duchies being rendered perpetual. On 
the contrary, it is the irrational hatred of the Duchies against 
everything that is German, more especially against Prussia, 



Proposed emenda- 
tion hy Prussia. 



* Proposed DraugTd of tie Protocol, 
" S. 2. En consequence Elles reconnaissent 
la sagesse des vues qui determinent S. M. le 
Roi de Danemarc a regler eventuelleinent 
l'ordre de succession dans sa Eoyale niaison 
de maniere a faciliter les arrangements aux 

nioyens desquels [ les liens qui rattaclient les F " l'nitegrite de la 
Duches de Holstein et de Slesric a la monar- ! monarchic Danoise 
chie Danoise deraeurent intactes." I demeurera iptacte," 



INTERPOSITION OF PRUSSIA. 211 



which will be perpetuated by such a lasting union. Why 
then increase hostile influences in the North of Germany. 
The policy of Prussia will at last be all but shut out from 
anything like free movement in its proper territory. Would 
your Majesty have chosen to labour for a perpetual union of 
Hanover with England ? or would your Majesty have chosen 
to interfere in hostility to the Basque Provinces, which were 
then defending their Fueros, and their Male Succession ? Sire, 
the Duchies, too, had their Fueros, and they will in future 
stand up to defend their Male Succession. In attempting to 
break the Legitimate Succession in the Duchies, violently and 
without a free renunciation on the part of those concerned, the 
dangerous principle of Arbitrary Power is installed in the place 
of positively existing Hereditary Rights ; numerous Preten- 
ders, and families of Pretenders will be established, the seed 
of future insurrections and those in favour of Legitimacy 
will be liberally sown. If your Majesty should give orders 
to sign the London Protocol, your Majesty will at all events 
sooner or later be obliged to interfere in favour of the 
illegitimate course, against the right and the interest of the 
Duchies, and even against the interest of your Majesty's own 
dominion. I pray to God that your Majesty may, at any 
risk, keep yourself free from establishing the Principle of 
c Integrity 9 which is not in existence, but which is only in- 
tended to he artificially created. The right of Denmark with 
regard to such " Integrity 55 has hitherto no other foundation 
than her own desire. And your Majesty can find no difficulty 
in keeping yourself thus free, if you shall think fit to adhere to 
the old declaration given once by Prince Metternich, and by the 
late M. de Canitz, and which has since been maintained, viz. 
that the proposed principle of c Integrity 5 is not to be pre- 
ferred, but that it is to be postponed to the Principle of 
Legitimate Succession, — -that is to say to the Right of the 
Agnates, and that it is only after all the parties concerned shall 
have freely renounced, that there can be any question of the 
Principle of Integrity." * 

* Memoir to the King of Prussia, by M. Usedom, 4th Feb., 1851. 



212 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



That these objections were not considered frivolous, nor 
their views visionary, is proved by the fact that If. Von 
Usedom was not dismissed from the service, and that he was 
selected to conclude this very negotiation. What a picture 
have we not here of the public morality of Prussia ! 

No doubt can be, I think, now rationally entertained that 
every step taken by Prussia was collusive. Such indeed is 
the present universal impression of the people in favour of 
whom she appeared to interpose ; the first words that saluted 
me in the Duchies* were, " the Prussians were our enemies, 
not the Danes ; they came with orders to spare the Danes 
and sacrifice us." We must now turn to the military events 

which have left behind them this impression. 

dhb c baqqujpa { banoi jiDfloo-lldw b 10 beieseaoo emeu adi 

* This chapter on the Interposition of Prussia is now added. 

nadw iud ; lodaum adi Hcxf iud oi bainx/omB eaidauCI adi 
-esrfl 000^1 idgift ixadi ni ism ^adi IhqA lo.b8£ adi no 
ifidi barriBaJ has t iioqqua ixadi oi isbyJK sift goiasoia enmz 
gbflsairod i iiaxfi if tool gahi/oq aiaw aaiBlS gnhjjoddgiaa adi 11& 
adi has c io9qsB inaialifi b bamj/eae 8*xaiiBxn t madi aiol oi 
oi ax ^Bdi— t eabia bapnjBifo aaax/Bo iaadqmuhi baa aiBiaqaab 
gniad oi baaoqxa asw in/aujq ni vlais! oa ^ons adi ,^bs 
isQitei mbbua aii iri ni bamxnad Itaaii *g£ubaft e fcajfifidinrxB 
iud i-ginasidoS \o dhoVL sxli no alftab & bne ai$> b xraawjad 
adi bnx/oa oi sbw ^noxfiifs nsiaam*! adi lo aaioiaxa iaifl ad-t 
tcS njod adi 3jBW ji toft gniad bw%k8G aoaeat ad J JLsoai 

v , it 4 .ianmt 

adi lo agbi/[ iaad" aifi ion ai biari-aliisd adi no laibloa adT - 
giabnnld adi io 10 ,now atB aaliiBd doirfw \d anoiiBflidaroo 
3-ii3 afeisnag lo enoriBJi/qax adi Jbas ; iaol a*B ^adi daidw yd 
Bid s qmfio b snoiaaaiqmi inaoeaoBva adJ rroqu fiai&is ion 
a aiadw bus c bBa*x '{Bin smn odw ad doidw ni aaaBO aiB aiaii 
8B7/ douS a iar§3j£iie a as ^Iisalo as aaa ^Bin tswqHo! qmjso 
noia89iqmi adi iaal adi sbiaad bus i inaaaiq is aaso adi 
a/Bd aw € aonahaqxa lo a&iiisab te^j 8B aqoart nocpr afcfinr 
aoBlq iooi noiiBDiaiiB inamada? b ^avoaioM . tinea* adt fa ted 
5flB eaMaxjG adi lo aqooii adi lo labnBinxnoO aii nssTTJad 



.xoiaaaoou^ftaraAci am 

no7 ,M ifidt- ^ob! 6xf t \d bevoiq ax ^BxroxaxY 8W9x? iisrfj 

26W 9ll ^Blfi bxiB t 9DX7I98 Sxf j XIIOTl BseSXXXIgxb fofl gBW fflobselT 

sutfoxq £ texfW ,xxoi;tex;tog9xx ^ioy sxxfj ybulonoo oj b9iD9l9g 

rft lo CHAPTER III. 
iBxlt £9mBii9jn9 ylkaoi-bn won ^nxrfj I e ocf xibo Jdx/ob oK 

Tlie War. ^ X 

lo HJ07BI ni afqo9q sxfl noiaediqmi lB8T9vixixj Jxi939iq axfj 

boiyl&s itBxfj ebiow iaift sxii ; ^goqratxii o$ Lagans 9ife modw 
The war was, so to say, extinguished at its birth. Scarcely 

had the insurgent forces assumed an attitude and occupied 
positions, when the Danes, already prepared for the Invasion 
of the Duchies, entered and drove them before them. In fact 
the Danes consisted of a well- conditioned, equipped, and 
commanded force of 10,000 men. The hasty gathering of 
the Duchies amounted to but half the number ; but when 
on the 23d of April they met in their flight 14,000 Prus- 
sians crossing the Eyder to their support, and learned that 
all the neighbouring States were pouring forth their thousands 
to join them, matters assumed a different aspect, and the 
desperate and triumphant causes changed sides, — that is to 
say, the army so lately in pursuit was exposed to being 
annihilated, finding itself hemmed in in its sudden retreat 
between a dyke and a defile on the North of Schleswig ; but 
the first exercise of the Prussian authority was to sound the 
recall, the reason assigned being that it was the hour for 
dinner. 

The soldier on the battle-field is not the best judge of the 
combinations by which battles are won, or of the blunders 
by which they are lost ; and the reputations of generals are 
not staked upon the evanescent impressions of a camp : but 
there are cases in which he who runs may read, and where a 
camp follower may see as clearly as a strategist. Such was 
the case at present ; and beside the fact of the impression 
made upon troops as yet destitute of experience, we have 
hat of the result. Moreover, a vehement altercation took place 
between the Commander of the troops of the Duchies and 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



the Prussian General, to whom the latter replied in these 
terms : " The responsibility rests with me, and not with you. 
Nothing is lost. The Danish army will be annihilated in a 
week ; and it is but fair to reserve some of the laurels for 
the troops of the Confederation. 55 

The Hanoverians, Mecklenburgers, Oldenburgers, Bruns- 
wickers, pour in by railways, and General Wrangel found 
himself at the head of 50,000 men, five-fold the number of 
the retreating foe, and dispositions were made for a hot pursuit 
the following morning. At four o'clock a.m:. the infantry 
were under arms, and the cavalry mounted, but no word 
" march ' 5 was given. There they stood, the men under their 
accoutrements, the cavalry on the backs of their horses, 
hour after hour looking on while the Danes quietly defiled. 
At nine o'clock, that is to say after five hours 5 fatigue, the 
pursuit commenced. The Prussians were pushed out so as 
to outflank the retreating force, on the right and on the left. 
The Confederates however, under the Duke of Brunswick and 
General Halkett fell upon them. Immediately was sounded 
the Prussian recall ! In this multitude of nations it was diffi- 
cult to prevent liberties being taken incompatible with military 
discipline. The General was urged at least to send a body to 
intercept the retreat of the Danes to the Isle of Alsen, where 
they would take refuge under the guns of their ships. He is 
reported to have replied "God only knows where they will go !" 
The Duke of Brunswick was so indignant, that after a stormy 
discussion with General Wrangel, he refused to take any 
further part in the Campaign, threw up his command in 
disgust, and returned home. The Danes had positively been 
suffered to return, and carry off the baggage they had aban- 
doned, bringing their horses to reyoke to the waggons and 
guns. 

The Danish force being expelled and the Duchies freed, 
what remained to be done ? Surely it was to open negotiations 
with Denmark. No, Denmark was to be invaded ; General 
Wrangel entered Jutland by orders from Berlin, and in 
defiance of the Protest of the Schleswig-Holsteiners. * 

* " Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein, the then Commander of 



THE WAE. 



215 



At least then the object must have been to press the war 
to a conclusion ; there were no Danish forces in Jutland, the 
Danes, at the utmost, amounting to 15,000 men, were in the 
Isle of Alsen, where they were observed by a superior force 
of the Confederates, who mustered in all 53,000 men, whilst 
the main body of General Wrangel, who had taken care to 
cany with him the Schleswig-Hoisteiners, were in Jutland. 
Nothing, therefore, prevented his occupation of the whole 
mainland, but he remained perfectly inactive. 

Notwithstanding the superior force under General Halkett, 
stationed opposite the island of Alsen, the Danes were allowed 
to cross the strait, to establish a tete du pont, to construct a 
bridge, to seize on the heights which commanded it, on them 
to build redoubts, and plant heavy artillery ! When these 
works had been completed, he commenced operations, by 
besieging them, he placed his troops in a half circle round 
Duppel ; this point being in direct communication with the 
tete du pont and the island, could in a single night be occupied 
by the Danish force which w T ould then find itself in the centre 
of the Germans, and be able by a sortie to beat and destroy 
them in detail. This was foreseen by the whole army of the 
besiegers, except the General, and it was executed with equal 
facility and success by the besieged. 

On the 28th of May, at the dawn of day, the Danes fell 
upon the Germans with their entire force. Halkett sent aides- 
du-camp to order one division after another ; each in suc- 
cession arrived too late. 

But where was General Wrangel? in the north of Jutland? 
Xo, he had returned into Schleswdg ; and had entered it four 

the Troops of the Duchies, protested and remonstrated against passing 
the frontier of Jutland on the 1st of May, 1848. This measure was 
not only suggested, but 'imperatively ordered by General Wrangel.' 
Prince Frederick represented that the Duchies carried on a wholly 
' defensive' war, and not an 1 offensive 1 one. He then wanted his 
corps to be left as a reserve to the Confederate Army on the northern 
frontier of Schleswig. This too was overruled, and this forced step 
furnished one more argument to prove the rebellious intentions of the 
Duchies." — Note by a Schleswig- Hoist einer. 



21G 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



days before the catastrophe of Buj)pel ; the distance was but 
twenty leagues; he was marching to the support of the 
Germans but he also arrived too late. 

The murmurs of an army beaten and baffled at every turn 
by an inferior force were not to be restrained, — something had 
to be undertaken. An attack was now made on the Danish 
redoubts, and the Prussian guard was led to the storm, but 
fortune did not favour them ; at all events it could no longer 
be said that the Prussian General had orders " to spare the 
Danes and expose the Confederates." 

Their reciprocal position having now been rendered suffi- 
ciently interesting and dramatic, Denmark and the Con- 
federation come to an arrangement ; surely then the affair of 
the Duchies is settled. No, it was not for this that M. 
de Cazes had been sent to Copenhagen, M. Bunsen's horn 
winded in London, and the Prussian recall so often sounded 
in Schleswig. In this arrangement the Duchies are entirely 
forgotten ; England is, however, at hand to take up their 
cause ; she strides into the arena as Mediatrix. 

Nothing can happen in Europe, Asia, in the New "World, 
or on the coasts of Africa without a London Protocol — could 
the Duchies escape? 

The case was sufficiently grave and sufficiently urgent, 
nor had the English Government been taken by surprise, yet 
the matter to this moment had been wholly ignored ; whilst 
the war had raged her minister had been called upon for 
explanations — had admitted that England was bound by the 
old Treaties of Guarantee, which as we have seen had been 
dropped in 1814 ; it was consequently expected that he was 
taking measures for carrying that Guarantee into effect ; when 
this hope had proved delusive, he explained his conduct by 
saying that the Guarantee, though it did exist did not apply to 
the present case ; by this ambiguity both parties were encou- 
raged and each believed it had the support of England. After 
the campaign had worked itself out, then England interposes 
to mediate. From that mediation the results are that six 
months are afforded to the belligerents to recruit their strength. 



THE WAE. 217 

This course of England is perfectly parallel to that of Prussia, 
who secured victories to Denmark while she lent armies to 
the Duchies : and as the military failures of the one are ex- 
plicable by no inexperience of the General, so are the 
diplomatic mistakes of the other referable to no incapacity 
in the minister. 

The Campaign of 1849 opened by the entrance of 20,000 
Danes into Schleswig. The Duchies mustered a nearly equal 
force, consisting, however, in a considerable degree of German 
volunteers and Prussians ; they were commanded by a 
Prussian General — Bonin, who had been sent by the Cabinet 
of Berlin to supersede the General of the Duchies. * There 
soon arrived 50,000 troops of the Confederation, of which 
nearly the half were Prussians ; in fact, the Duchies furnished 
to the King of Prussia a Siberia and a Cireassia, where the 
turbulent found occupation and the seditious repose. 

The Danes were speedily driven back, and, following 
them, the Schleswig-Holsteiners entered Jutland, and were 
soon joined by the Prussians, under General Pritwitz, who 
had succeeded General Wrangel. He divided this powerful 
Army into two bodies : the one, composed of Prussians and 
Hessians, was sent in pursuit of a body of Danes, a third of 
their number; — the Schleswig-Holsteiners. to the amount of 
14,000, were despatched to blockade Eredericia, which was 
open to the sea, of which the Danes had the command ! The 
heights of Goulsk, three leagues from the , fortress, were 
crowned with redoubts : these were taken by assault, and 

# Whilst Prince Frederick, General-in-Chief of the army of the 
Duchies, was in Schleswig trying to reorganise his troops, a deputy 
at the Diet at Kiel observed, that " Fortune favoured the Duchies by 
giving them the opportunity of obtaining a distinguished Prussian 
officer as their general, whose appointment would avert such disasters 
as those which had occurred. 5 ' The Prince on this sent in his resig- 
nation, and two days after General Bonin arrived, empowered by an 
order of the Prussian Cabinet, to accept the command of the army 

of ife^^%^ irjn'jsi oi ataaidsiibd 3ifc otbab?cSe eras Bdtmm 

10 



218 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



the victors pursuing the fugitives might have entered the 
fortress with thern, when again the Prussian recall sounded. 
A blockade being perceived to be of no possible use, it was 
resolved to besiege the place in form : the Army sat down 
before it. Now Fredericia lies on the sea, which was com- 
manded by the Danish Navy. Into the place which you pro- 
pose to besiege the enemy can throw at pleasure any amount 
of men, and remove from it, if necessary, the garrison ! 
General Bonin was perfectly familiar with the nature of the 
place, having been stationed there for four weeks during the 
preceding year. There could not have been a point selected 
more available for wasting the time and exhausting the 
strength of the Confederates, and affording to the Danes the 
opportunity of striking without risk a fatal blow. This is 
what happened. 

Each party has three pieces on the board : the Confede- 
rates, the besieging fort at Fredericia, opposed to the Danish 
garrison, an army opposite Alsen and another at Jutland, the 
two latter being opposed to two Danish bodies : they had 
on the three points an overwhelming numerical majority, 
everywhere acting on the offensive. The two Danish corps 
in Jutland and Alsen give their several antagonists the slip, 
and the whole Danish army is concentrated in Fredericia. 
The Confederates do not march to support the besiegers, 
nor is the siege raised and the force concentrated : it is left 
scattered round the place in its trenches, and, consequently, 
one fine morning it is cut to pieces; its camp is taken, and 
fifty guns fall into the hands of the Danes. 

These operations were not conducted in a sudden and 
secret manner ; the reinforcements were daily seen entering 
the place, and, after the besieged were known far to out- 
number the besiegers, still were the men kept in the entrench- 
ments, but the fire ceased. The explanation offered was that 
it was not advisable to exasperate the enemy, whose fire, 
however, never ceased. The discontent and the alarm of the 
troops could not be restrained, and the General attempted 



THE WAE. 



219 



to justify himself and to allay apprehensions, by explaining 
that his measures were concerted with General Pritwitz, who 
would be on the spot to support them when necessary. 

Notwithstanding this disaster, the forces of the Confe- 
derates were still greatly superior to those of the Danes. 
Fredericia is in Jutland : the Danes had, therefore, onlymain- 
ained a post of their own, and had not a man in Schleswig. 
The Confederates had either to pursue their attack against 
Denmark, or to bring matters to an accommodation. But 
neither course is adopted : again the military operations 
cease ; again an armistice is introduced to prepare for the 
resumption of hostilities in the following year. There is, 
however, a separate incident of this campaign, which must 
not be overlooked. 

The Germans were enthusiastic about ships, and resolved 
to have a navy, not because they had a coast and colonies, 
but precisely because they had none. The first event in their 
maritime annals occurred on the 4th June, 1849, when three 
steam vessels built in England, with gunners taught on 
board the "Excellent," and carrying 6 8 -pounders, issued 
from the Weser to amuse themselves with firing at a mark on 
the tranquil ocean. When about to begin this exercise, they 
perceived the smoke of a steamer coming out of the Elbe, 
and they soon made her out to be a Dane, and gave chase. 
The steamer distanced them ; but they fell unexpectedly on 
a Danish corvette, under Heligoland, where she was enjoying 
the sunshine, and drying her sails. The little steam squadron 
dignified itself with a broad pendant ; the <c Commodore 55 
was Mr. Brommy,* who, after some shots were exchanged, 
steered away. The astonishment of the inhabitants of Heli- 
goland at such desperation on the part of the " pirates " f 

* Mr. Brommy began by being a cabin-boy on board a Hamburg 
vessel, and after several changes of fortune found himself lieutenant 
of a corvette taken from the Turks by Lord Cochrane during the 
Greek war, and afterwards commander of a steamer ; but he arrived 
in Greece only after the close of the struggle. 

t Lord Palmerston wrote to the Senate of Bremen to demand how 



220 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



may be easily imagined ; the Governor, himself a sailor, 
had just exclaimed, " Poor corvette, five minutes more and 
she must strike !" The " Commodore " obtained the deco- 
ration of Commander of the Order of Merit of Oldenburg, 
of the Guelph from Hanover, and some others. This is the 
beginning, progress, and termination of the history of a Ger- 
man fleet, unless the following fact is to be added as an 
appendix : Brommy was created Admiral, and thereupon the 
German empire expired. 

We have seen that Mr. Bunsen, in his Memoir, had pro- 
posed cutting Schleswig in two, we have also seen of what 
importance was this step for the workers of confusion. This 
is the result of the Campaign of 1849, by which the Danish 
troops were driven out of both Duchies, and it is effected 
by an Armistice / A line is drawn from Tondern to Elens- 
burg, to be occupied on either side by neutrals, the parties 
having to evacuate entirely. These neutrals are to be Swedes 
and Norwegians on the North, Prussians and Oldenburgers 
on the South ; and while England and Prussia are occupied 
in these inconceivable monstrosities, the Muscovites are 
pouring down the Carpathians, and the Czar is allowed 
quietly to appropriate, by propping up, the crown of the 
Caesars, which he had first cast into the mire.* 

But, in all this, what part does Denmark play ? Does 
she not expose and denounce to Europe this scandalous 
violation of all form and of all law ? She had been made 
safe ; and besides, what did she know of law.f 

A Triumvirate is now appointed for the government of the 
Duchies, and again the Duchies are altogether excluded from 
the arrangement of a matter in which they are the principals. 
Denmark is to name one Functionary, Prussia another, and 

three pirate steamers under an imaginary flag had issued from the 
Weser to attack a Danish ship in the neutral waters of Heligoland. 

# " Pas nne couronnene tombe dans le boue, qu'un demes cousins 
de Cobourg ne la ramasse." — Nicolas. 

f A Danish class-book defines " Declaration of war" — "a formality 
formerly considered necessary but now generally omitted" 



THE WAE. 



221 



the third is to be appointed by England. As the third must 
in reality be the umpire, the Conference appended a condition 
to his nomination, that of his being acceptable to both par- 
ties. The person whom the English Minister did appoint 
did not fulfil these conditions ; he was accepted by neither, 
and was protested against by both. We must glance at his 
previous career. 

Colonel Hodges distinguished himself, (if the expression 
may be so applied,) amongst the mercenaries sent to Spain to 
put down the Basques ; he was then selected for an important 
and delicate post which had just been created — that of Bri- 
tish Consul in Serbia, (1837.) At this time the " entente 
cordiale " reigned between England and I ranee, there had 
been then no Syrian war, no Pritchard affair, and no Spanish 
marriages. Serbia was of all points in Europe that where 
the opposition most displayed itself of Eussian schemes and 
English interests, and with a view to this very antagonism 
the post had been created. Yet the verbal instructions which 
Colonel Hodges received, ambiguous indeed in form, but 
unmistakeable in effect, were to act with Eussia and not to 
act with France ! The precise terms addressed to him were : 
" You deceive yourself if you expect to receive a real sup- 
port from Erance, and you will see that it is not Eussia 
that England will have occasion to distrust." It is needless 
to say how Colonel Hodges acted under the impression of 
these prophetic words, what troubles he raised in Serbia, 
what embarrassments he occasioned to Sir Stratford Canning, 
not equally confided in by their common chief ; so well did 
he do his patron's work that when the country cast out the 
creature of Eussia, their then Prince, it cast out also the 
Consul of England. Mr. Disraeli on the 8th March, 1842, 
said : " When he arrived he found his consular duties 
slight ; but events were stirring of the greatest importance, 
and he threw himself into the heat of eveiy political intrigue, 
so that in the course of eighteen months he had produced 
such a complication of circumstances as would take two 
ambassadors extraordinary to resolve. The Noble Viscount 



222 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



did not recall him, and for this reason Colonel Hodges was 
driven out, the Prince he had supported lost his throne, the 
house of Colonel Hodges was burnt, and he fled to Vienna." 
His zeal was soon rewarded by a better post, the Consulate- 
General of Egypt ; when in course of time a cooler one 
again became requisite, he was transferred to Hamburg. 

When the English minister proposed Colonel Hodges as 
the third Triumvir for Schleswig, Prussia, in condescension 
to the public feelings existing in the Duchies in respect to 
that functionary, protested against the nomination. The 
protest was final according to the terms of the convention, 
and consequently, in any ordinary transaction, Colonel 
Hodges was ipso facto excluded. But this transaction, as 
evinced in every step, was not an ordinary one. The Danish 
minister protested against him also, and Colonel Hodges 
(who could not be accepted if disagreeable to one of the 
parties), is accepted because disagreeable to both. With 
these documents, Lord Palmerston could present himself to 
his colleagues and say, " Here I can offer you the best evi- 
dence of my impartiality. In this hand I hold the protest 
of Prussia, in this, that of Denmark : as to the terms of the 
Convention, we who have settled them have surely the power 
to alter them." His colleagues, with a courtesy become 
habitual, bow to his decision. 

At length the Armistice reached its term, and the Cam- 
paign recommenced its course ; but how different are now 
the circumstances. Prussia has withdrawn from the contest 
— Prussia, a first-rate Power — Prussia, by whose encourage- 
ment it had been commenced — by whose troops it had been 
sustained — by whose Generals it had been directed. How 
could Prussia abandon her fond ally ? How could the 
Duchies persevere without their powerful protector? If 
they did, it is wonderful ; but it is impossible that they 
should not be troubled with misgivings, if not overwhelmed 
with fear. This is what it would be reasonable to expect, 
but the facts throughout this whole business defy expectation. 
The Duchies were rejoiced at this result, and considered 



THE WAE. 



223 



themselves not deprived of strength, but relieved from an 
oppression, and expected now to be allowed to fight it out 
with their antagonist. Diplomacy, however, with generous 
providence, looked to holding the balance even, and the 
Swedes and Norwegians were also embarked and sent home, 

Denmark, with great efforts, had been able to assemble 
40,000 men with ninety-six guns : her maritime strength 
need not be reckoned, being of little or no avail. With this 
force she could not expect to conquer the Duchies, and she 
had the certainty before her eyes that their defeat and her 
triumph would reawaken enthusiasm and exasperation in 
Germany, and excite another tide of Invasion. How was it, 
then, that no thought arose of an accommodation ? New 
incentives and stimulants had, however, been found requisite 
at Copenhagen. Prance sent a distinguished general, the 
celebrated Philhellenist Fabvier, to discourse of campaigns 
and suggest plans of operations, and Russia herself had come 
forward at length to smile on the undertaking. She allowed 
hopes of a subsidy to be entertained, sent a squadron to hover 
on the coasts, and, together with the use of steamers for the 
transport of troops, lent to the enterprise that great modern 
invention — " moral support." 

The renewal of hostilities took place, indeed, by the act of 
the Duchies, who crossed the Eyder, — that is to say, who 
entered their own territory. Their object was to anticipate 
the Danes in securing that important line of defence, which 
crosses the isthmus at Isted. 

Schleswig, the field to which this contest was circum- 
scribed, is one hundred miles in length and not fifty in 
breadth ; but in fact the arena was furthered narrowed to its 
southern extremity, and consisted in the maintenance of those 
strong positions, which from the remotest times had been the 
barrier of the Northmen against the Germans. 

The forces employed were, in proportion to the means of 
the parties, enormous. If England in a civil war made a 
similar effort, her armies in the field would amount to a 
1,000,000 men. Denmark, as I have said, mustered 40,000 



224 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



with ninety-six guns : the Duchies moved across the Eyder 
30,000 men with eighty guns, chiefly of large calibre, leaving 
four battalions of reserve. 

A causeway and military road leads from Flensburg, 
(where the Danish troops, entering from Jutland, or arriving 
by sea, would effect their junction,) southward through the 
centre of the province to the town of Schleswig. On both 
sides the country is difficult from broken ground and defensible 
positions, but principally because interspersed with bogs and 
marshes : some five or six miles in advance of Schleswig, a 
natural line of defence composed of lakes, marshes, steep 
banks of rivers, and forests extend across from east to west. 
The causeway passing by the village of Isted is inclosed in a 
gorge, the heights on the left being backed by the long lake 
of " Lang So," and on the right by almost continuous 
marshes. The heights on both sides were crowned by bat- 
teries of which the crossing fire enfiladed the passage, and 
these were strengthened by fleldworks and redoubts. Here 
was stationed the mass of the forces of the Duchies and of 
their artillery. Had the Danes been repulsed in an attack 
upon this position, they must have abandoned their offen- 
sive attitude, and the war would have terminated by 
their inability to effect anything, for the Duchies, relieved 
from the Prussians, would not have entered Jutland, but have 
stood merely on the defensive. 

On the 24th July, 1850, the Danish army appeared before 
Isted, and drove in the outposts. On the 28th, at two 
o'clock, they made an attack at every point, sending out 
detachments right and left, to attempt the passages beyond 
the marshes and beyond the lake. They were, however, 
repulsed on all points, and at Stolk lost four guns and their 
best General, Shleppegrell, who had led the sortie at Frede- 
ricia, beaten Wrangel at Duppel, and commanded on every 
occasion on which the Danes had been successful. After 
such a check it was not to be supposed that the attack could 
be renewed with discouraged troops, and without any neces- 
sity ; but at nine o'clock, — that is to say, after seven hours' 



THE WAIL 



225 



fighting — they were on every point brought again to the 
charge and again repulsed. The troops of the Duchies were 
inferior in numbers by 10,000 men, and their sole business 
was to defend their strong position ; they had been under 
arms for twenty-four hours, and had had to sustain one assault 
during the night, and one in the morning, and though excited 
by success, were exhausted and disordered, — reasons for 
delay, even had an advance movement been on other grounds 
imperative. They were led out into the plain to pursue their 
advantage. When well advanced, a fresh body of 10,000 
Danes falls upon them, drives them back, and enters the 
entrenchments with the fugitives. 

As no General with the commonest qualifications could 
have been guilty of so gross an imprudence, it might be 
inferred that Prussia having now made peace with Denmark, 
had withdrawn her officers of experience, and left the 
Schleswig-Holsteiners to the conduct of some provincial 
Hannibal ; but Prussia was not so unmindful of her friends, 
and if prudent had not ceased to be considerate. She had 
not left them in so hopeless a predicament, and the catastrophe 
was, therefore, not to be laid to the charge of inconsiderate 
patriotism and inexperienced valour. 

General Willisen won his spurs at the Battle of Leipzig ; 
during the peace he devoted himself to tactics, was professor 
of the military art, and published several works, which have 
become class-books in Germany : but this branch did not 
suffice to absorb his talents. In the convulsions of 1848, 
the King of Prussia was in want of a " Pacificator " for 
Posen, and upon him fell the Eoyal choice. It may be recol- 
lected, though in these days memory is short, that in the first 
outbreak of revolutionary enthusiasm, the German people 
took it into its head to war with the Czar, and seriously pro- 
posed to drive Eussia into the deserts of Asia and the snows 
of the Pole. 

Eevolution in the south and west presented only a local 
colour ; but to the north and east, although it failed not to 

10 § 



226 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



articulate the watchwords of freedom there was associated 
therewith the idea of independence. They saw Eussia near 
and imminent, beetling like an iceberg over their heads, and 
menacing at every hour an avalanche. They well knew that 
no form of internal government could resist her invasion, or 
subsist if hostile to her views, so that the devolution in 
Prussia was just as much directed against the Emperor at 
St. Petersburgh, as against the King in Berlin. It turned 
consequently to the Poles as its natural allies, and whilst 
calling out for "Free Press," "Eree Meetings," "National 
Guard," and " Eepresentative Chamber," it called out also 
for " Eestoration of Poland:" it adopted as its philosophical 
conclusion that its triumph was but temporary and incom- 
plete till it had succeeded in disabling the Autocrat from 
interfering in the forms of government of other countries. 
This it is which explains the momentary enthusiasm through- 
out Germany in the cause of Poland, and the expectation of 
seeing the outburst of revolution pour itself from that 
country over the north. This direction of the public mind 
would have united, had they not been so before, the 
domestic and dynastic interests of the Kings with the poli- 
tical ends of the Eussian Cabinet. That of Prussia saw no 
safety save in those very auxiliaries which the people of 
Prussia looked upon as their deadliest foes. But that aid 
could not be obtained directly ; the means of safety lay in 
establishing a schism between the Poles and the Germans. 
Some estimate may thus be formed of the qualities required 
for a " Pacificator " of Polish Posen : a man was requisite 
who knew how to combine heart with head. 

Willisen played his part to admiration : he succeeded in 
presenting the King as the patron of the anti-Eussian en- 
thusiasm, and then returned to Berlin, aparently to counter- 
act some secret machinations by which his royal master had 
been overreached : he left his apartment after a long con- 
ference, at two o'clock in the morning, when the king address- 
ing his court, which awaited, said, " Gentlemen, you want 



THE WAR. 



227 



war with Eussia ; well, you shall have it ; " and on this, the 
secret order was despatched for disarming the Poles. The 
shock of contradictory propositions, passion and mystery, 
exasperations and uncertainty, effaced all anterior impressions; 
the public was at sea and so the Anti-Eussian projects fell, the 
revolutionary spirit evaporated, and the royal diplomacy 
triumphed at Berlin and in Posen, as at Duppel, and at 
Fredericia. Willisen was, it is true, accused of treachery by 
one party, he was therefore admired for patriotism by the 
the other : he himself published a voluminous defence, which 
everybody devoured, but which no one could digest. It 
was, however, said to be much to the taste of his master and 
the Emperor. 

Willisen now took the road to Italy, and directed his steps 
to Piedmont. His liberal sympathies and Polish antecedents 
opened to him every door and every heart ; he was con- 
ducted from position to position, from army to army. 
Passing from the military to the diplomatic branch, Ministers 
underwent his examination ; public offices opened themselves 
to his inspection. His review completed, he posted to 
Peschiera, and soon after returned with Eadetzski, to visit his 
Sardinian friends : he so interested the Field-Marshal by his 
conversation, that even with the pre-occupations of the field of 
Novara, he did not allow him for a moment to quit his side.* 

This adventure completed, Willisen again turned his face 

* Already has the defeat at Novara been attributed to one act of 
treason, but the treason was much deeper than that of one General 
of Division. The Austrian and Piedrnontese governments were both 
betrayed, the one to the other. The independence of Lombardv, 
which Austria offered through England on the 22d of May, was 
niched away by the same process ; and the victory, secured by ma- 
nagement to the Austrian arms in the south, was the signal for the 
blow struck at Hungary, where all was already prepared to sacrifice 
to Hungary the Austrian armies, and then Hungary to Eussia. The 
warlike operations of these years were all made safe like those we 
have been examining. The Spanish marriages, the Confiscation of 
Cracow, the Swiss mediation, the disturbances of Italy and Sicily, 
the French, with its concomitant revolutions, are all facts which are 



228 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



northwards, and opportunely reached Berlin at the very 
moment that the Peace with Denmark constrained the King 
to recall General Bonin. The successful " Pacificator" of 
Posen was exactly the man required. It is true that the 
objection which had caused the recall of his predecessor 
equally applied to him. He too was Prussian officer and 
Prussian general : but seeing how Conventions are executed, 
and armistices observed, we must admit as good a distinc- 
tion between General Willisen and General Bonin, as between 
the two sides of the demarcation line from Tondern to Flens- 
burg. Thus it will be readily conceived that though at 
Isted General Bonin was no longer in command of the troops 
of the Duchies, the " Pacification of the North" lost nothing 
by the change. 

After losing a strong position by an ambuscade, and sacri- 
ficing about 4,000 men, continuing to apply the maxims of 
strategy which he had been so long engaged in teaching, he 
fell by mathematical gravitation on the south, never stopping 
until he had placed behind him the fortress of Eendsburg. 
Evacuating or abandoning the whole of Schleswig, he with- 
drew behind the Eyder, which the neutrality of Holstein 
forbade the Danes to cross. His army, though defeated, 
had received reinforcements, which raised it far above its 
complement when it took the field, whilst that of the Danes, 
which had suffered nearly as severely as its antagonist, received 
no reinforcement whatever. It was in a hostile country, 
and had to strengthen and to fortify its various positions. In 
extending its operations, it was liable to be at any point 
attacked by the whole force of the Duchies from behind the 
Eyder, which is a river or canal cut from sea to sea, and 
across which it did not dare to venture, nay, not even to 
fire. General Willisen was a great admirer of the Napoleon 

linked together, and the process laid bare in regard to any may be 
assumed to exist in respect to alL 

I hare been informed that I hare mistaken General Willisen for 
his brother. If so, the King of Prussia is lucky in haying two 
Willisens instead of one. 



THE WAR 



229 



combination of concentration, the art of which consisted in 
indncing the enemy to radiate his forces. Here the enemy 
had laid out for him the positions. He could attack them 
at any point with his whole force, and annihilate them sepa- 
rately ; and he selects their two exposed positions to the 
extreme right and left ; marching under cover of the Eyder, 
he attacks at both and is repulsed. Thus ends the campaign; 
Willisen* returns home ; and for the Duchies, of course, we 
w T ill have an armistice. 

This time the armistice is replaced by 20,000 Austrians. 
Why Austrians ? Have we not had neutrals and belligerents 
enough ? If not, why not Russians ? Austria had just re- 
quired the aid of Eussian troops in her own territory. They 
could have reached Kiel, their ancient possession, in twenty- 
four hours, without traversing or disturbing Germany. Let 
any one consider what before the event he would have said, if 
he had been told, that because of some petty troubles in an 
unknown province on the Baltic he had been told that troops 
should have been called in from Drontheim on the North, and 
from Petervardein on the South ? What again, if such a con- 
tingency being admitted as possible, it were then asserted that 
the troops of Eussia should alone be wanting ? 

Clearly the matter is now about to be concluded ; Austria 
owes Hungary to the Czar : her occupation will not cease 
till a diplomatic act, bearing no longer on the disputes 
of the parties but on the succession of the Crown, shall have 
decided that matter according to Eussia's views, — to the 
suppression of all the rights for which the antagonists have 
been contending, and withdrawing from the Danish people all 
faculty of disposing of themselves. 

# I have received various denials of the accuracy of the state- 
ments here made with regard to this battle : these I have carefully 
weighed, but cannot admit. A pamphlet has been also sent me 
in which I have been assured I should find the proof of the reverse. 
I have added some extracts from it at the end of this Chapter, that 
the reader may judge. 



230 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



NOTE. 
BATTLE OF ISTED. 

Extracted from a Pamphlet by Hammerich, Chaplain to the Da:iish 

Army. 

" Le moment decisif de la bataille etait arrive. Depuis 
quelques instants on s'apercevait qu'il y passait dans le 
centre deWillisen quelque chose d'extraordinaire. Des divi- 
sions entieres avaient epuise leurs provisions de pondre ; on 
se plaignait que le General en Chef ne donnait pas d'ordre ; 
de temps en temps des soldats de differents bataillons se 
trainoient peniblement jusqu' aupres des notres harasses de 
fatigue et incapables de continuer le combat. lis se cou- 
chaient par terre ne songeant plus qu'a se reposer et a se 
rafraichir. En vain les officiers les exhortaient a marcher. 
Nous n'avons pas d'ordre a recevoir de vous, repondaient ils. 
Eeaucoup d'autres personnes des environs se joignaient aux 
officiers pour piquer leur amour propre, en les engageant a 
aller aux secours de leurs freres d'armes. Oui, disaient ils ; 
qnand nous aurons mange. Tout semblait devenir de plus 
en plus contraire a l'armee ennemie. Enfin Willisen apprit 
que le Colonel Schepelern etait a Schuby et menacait sa ligne 
de retraite. 

" Le Colonel Schepelern selon le plan de la bataille se 
trouvait vers onze heures et demi a Schuby sur les derrieres 
de 1' ennemie. On a vu rarement un mouvement circulaire 
reus sir si completement." — p. 32. 

" La confiance qu'on avait dans les talents muitaires de 
"VYillisen etait encore si grande dans les rangs de Tarmee, que 
1'aile droite de l'ennemi qui avait souffert de moins, jprenait 
la retraite pour un stratageme." 

" Les Holsteinois qui d'ailleurs se battaient bravement 
eux-memes 5 disaient avec raison 3 c Les Danois ne se battent 
pas, ils ne font qu'avancer. 5 

" Willisen chercha a sauver sa reputation du grand Capi- 
taine en disant que la bataille n 5 etait pas flnie. On ne m'a 
pas fait abandonner ma position par des manoeuvres, disait il ; 
c'est et nous ecrasant qu'on nous a fait quitter le champ de 
bataille."— p. 39. 

" Apres la bataille d'Isted il (Willisen) comprit qu'il avait 
mal juge les Danois. Son entourage l'avait force malgres ses 
principes strategiques de perdre les avantages d'une position 



NOTES. 



231 



defensive pour prendre l'offensive au risque de s'exposer 
a rnille dangers. Et maintenant il etait pousse malgre lui vers 
Missund et Erederickstadt ; son honneur etait engage il ne 
pouvait plus s'arreter. 

" Le General Wrangel se trouvait ceux aux lorsque la nou- 
velle de la victoire lui arriva. II etait en compagnie d'une 
noble famille Danoise, avec laquelle il etait tres lie. II fit 
bonne contenance, felicita les Danois et parla de Willisen 
comme d'un homme a qui Von ne pouvait se fiw" m 

The subjoined extract from the public news, as printed in 
London on the 25th of May, will fully justify the qualifica- 
tions as tactician of this Prussian General : other men win 
honours by gaining battles, they by losing them. 

"Berlin .May 22, 

" The Eussian Imperial Chancellor, Count Nesselrode, sat 
opposite the Emperor and the King of Prussia, between the 
President of the Cabinet, M. von Manteuffel, General von 
Wrangel, whose next neighbour was Count Orloff, the Eussian 
Minister of Police. During dinner, the King himself called 
on the guests to fill their glasses to the brim {his zum Bande), 
and gave the following toast : — 

" 5 In my own name, and that of my army, and in the name 
of all true Prussian hearts, I give the health of Plis Imperial 
Majesty of Eussia ! God preserve him to that portion of the 
world which God has given him for an inheritance, and to 
this age, to which he is indispensable. 5 

"The Emperor replied, ' Dieu conserve votre Majeste,' 
adding immediately afterwards in German, — c I drink to the 
welfare of the King of Prussia and his admirable army. 9 

" The toast was drunk with the utmost enthusiasm, and the 
hall re-echoed with oft-repeated c Hochs /' " 

In the same paper in which the above is reported, the 
" Times" observes: — "The continent is governed literally, if 
not symbolically, by Colonels in Russian uniforms." 



232 



CHAPTER V. 
Treaty of the 8t/i of May, 1852. 

The anticipations with which the foregoing chapter closes, 
and which were written at the end of 1850, were soon after 
realised. Whilst the war continued, not a whisper transpired 
respecting the succession : all the ostensible negotiations had 
reference to the position of the parties, and closed by totally 
ignoring the matters for which the war had been ostensibly 
made. To an unexpected question in the House of Com- 
mons, the Minister for Foreign Affairs confusedly replied by 
admitting that there were communications affecting the suc- 
cession ; but this was all that ever was extracted. In the 
course however of 1851, the Protocol of Warsaw of the 
24th of May was printed in the papers ; but the public 
mind, fatigued with the subject, heeded it not. That Pro- 
tocol was calculated to leave the impression that it was 
an affair which concerned no foreign power and injured no 
positive rights : it was between Branches of the House of 
Oldenburg alone ; it assumed a complete right to deal with 
the matters in question ; it specified the renunciations of the 
persons set aside ; engaged that the King of Denmark should 
charge himself with the indemnities to be afforded to any 
other claimants ; and the only innocent reference to Foreign 
Powers is, " that his Majesty shall make known his deter- 
mination to the Powers, friends of Denmark." 

But it so happened that the statement of the Protocol in 
reference to the renunciations obtained was not true : not a 
letter of renunciation had at that time been expedited or 
signed. These renunciations, as appears by the documents 
subsequently submitted to the Diet of Copenhagen, were only 



TREATY OF MAY, 



233 



obtained in the course of the subsequent months of July, 
August, and September.* It may be said that if not obtained 
there was at least a moral certitude of obtaining them, but 
observe that they are invalidated by the very date. A pre- 
tender deriving from any one of these persons may clearly 
allege coercion, and deny the validity of the act. 

The promise of indemnities to any other claimants was not 
kept : the sum paid to the Duke of Augustenburg was only 
equal to the value of the property he has since ceded, and 
the entail of that compensation has by an illegal ordinance 
(13th January, 1853) been cut off, excluding his own 
immediate descendants and his collaterals ; the renunciation 
which he has given is ambiguous, and he also and his family 
may in like manner plead coercion; the very claims of Eussia 
to-day are in opposition to a European Treaty, in which 
Eussia herself was a party against the then Duke of Gottorp. 

But the King of Denmark had no power to dispose of 
the Succession. The Protocol was a fraud from beginning 
to end. 

As already stated, Eussia had abstained from all appa- 
rent interest in the transactions of Denmark, and allowed 
the Minister of Prussia in London, in the only diplo- 
matic document then avowedly published by any Court, 
to declare simultaneously, that she had renounced her rights 
and that she had no rights to renounce. Now she reasserts 
those claims, to make again a temporary renunciation, whilst 
declaring her intention of enforcing them, " should the present 
Combination come to fail." 

Whoever perused the document must have supposed the 
matter concluded, and when he came to the final passage that 
<( in London the necessary negotiations must take place, to 
give to this act the character of a European Transaction," 
he would only thence derive the gratifying perception of the 
compliment intended to Great Britain, by Eussia and Den- 

* Three on the 18th July, two on the 3d of August, one on the 
16th August, and two on the 13tli September. 



234 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



mark. Any further attempts to comprehend the mystery, 
would be shipwrecked upon " European Transaction." 

What was assumed to have been done in Warsaw was, 
however, to be effected by what was to take place in London, 
and this was to be done in London, because it was to be assumed 
that everything had been settled at Warsaw. It was not that 
a measure of internal policy in Denmark was by a compli- 
mentary notice in London to become a " European Trans- 
action," but that a Conference in London was to interpose in 
the internal concerns of Denmark ; and arrangements, which 
if the averments had been true might have been quite innocent 
in a Protocol between Eussia and Denmark, become most 
criminal in a Treaty signed by England and France. 

Will it be believed that this Warsaw Protocol between 
Denmark and Eussia was but the echo of one already 
secretly signed nearly a year before between the Powers in 
London, obtained after prolonged and arduous struggles, 
unconsciously confessed by Lord Clarendon when he spoke 
of the thousands of folios to which the correspondence had 
extended ! The facts which I have stated can leave no 
doubt that the Enoiish Minister was acting: in concert 
with Eussia ; Denmark was her mere tool : Prussia., in the 
secret Article of the M Paix pure et simple," had bound 
herself to back any proposition of Denmark: the Russian 
troops were at the time in Hungary : the Prince President 
was in the hands of the Czar. Whence then arose the 
necessity of any toil? The credit of the resistance is 
evidently due to the Cabinet of Lord John Eusseil, and in 
those statements which have transpired, it is Lord Palmer- 
ston who figures as the recusant. He is represented as 
having yielded only to the necessities imposed upon him by 
the embarrassments occasioned by his proceedings in Greece,* 

* The representative of a Foreign Court in reference to this 
matter used these words : " Lord Pahnerston has explained an act 
which disgusted France as one winch was necessary to upset the 
influence of Eussia in Greece. "Why then did he not associate France 
with himself, the two Powers having been just before engaged in res- 



TEEATY OP MAT. 



2 3 5 



and the danger of a rapture with Russia, only be averted by 
the appending of his signature to the London Protocol of 
the 4th of July, 1S50. 

Such is the view of the case inserted by a leading German 
Statesman in a Pamphlet which he has left as a record of 
the transaction, and it corresponds with the statement from 
a semi-official Prussian source, which appeared in the W ?ser 
Zeitung in April, 1S5 3. I append extracts from both in a 
note to this Chapter. 

When then Lord Derby's Administration came into power, 
it found a matter so complicated and voluminous, that it 
would have required months to master the details, — so per- 
plexed and yet adjusted, that years of labour upon the mate- 
rials so furnished, would not have sufficed for fathoming it ; 
unless indeed the new Foreign Minister had been a man 
capable of comprehending it at a glance there was no 
escape \ in the words of the Times " the transaction was 
brought to that point where the Conference had only to 
append their signatures." The merits of the case were con- 
sequently set aside, the matter was looked upon simply, in 
a practical point of view — that is to say, with reference to 
the convenu of the Cabinet, and "its policy was made up :5 
accordingly. Lord Derby is indeed reported to have in- 
quired — " Who is to come in after the Line of Glucksburg?" 
and ML Erunnow to have answered, M Time will show I" 
There the matter closed. So absolute was their confidence in 
the affair being concluded, that Members of the Cabinet itself 
were not even aware that such Treaty had been signed, and 
remained in that ignorance until the month of March of the 
following year. The article in the Tines, which M. Brunaow 
had launched immediately on obtaining the signatures, was 
considered a hoax. 

I confess that, notwithstanding my long anticipation of 

going the Hungarian refugees ? and why did he attack the commerce 
of Greece and not its Government. He is too astute a man not to 
have perceived that by one blow he was giving to Russia the alliance 
of France and the control of Greece." 



236 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



such a Treaty, I was influenced by these statements, con- 
firmed by the failure of my attempts to obtain a copy of 
the Treaty so announced : I only became acquainted with 
it ten months afterwards by a communication from the Se- 
cretary of State for Foreign Affairs to one of the excluded 
Princes, who, begging to be informed regarding the nature 
and conditions of the instrument by which the ancestral rights 
and honours of his House, the independence of his country, 
and his private property and possessions were disposed of, 
was referred to the henceforward memorable shops, No. 6, 
Great Turnstile, Lincoln VInn Fields, and No. 32, Abingdon 
Street, Westminster, where the Treaty was to be obtained for 
a penny. English diplomatic correspondence is generally of 
a heavy description, but there are occasions upon which it 
can become lively, that is, when it happens that in " making 
up the policy of the Cabinet," there is incidentally a nation 
to crush, or an individual to insult. 

The article in the Times* proceeded from " authority 
the Treaty was signed on the 8th; it appeared on the 11th, 
and required at least two days for composition ; it did not 
proceed from an English authority ; for while stamping the 
responsibility on Lord Malmesbury it refers all the honour 
and credit to others. It contains, moreover, details with 
which the English Government could not have been ac- 
quainted, and falsifications of which it could not be 
guilty, f According to the Times it is a truly British 
Document, it is not only a Treaty, but it is one of native 
manufacture. Inquiring one day in a shop for a travelling 
bag of Eussian leather, some domestic calf skin, slightly 
perfumed, was offered for my admiration and acceptance: 
demurring somewhat, the shopman haughtily replied : " Sir, 
I warrant it ! 55 Thus it is with the British public; it must 
accept as the occasion may be, a " warranted " bag, or a 

* The article will be found in extenso at the end of the Chapter, 
f For instance, it represents the Princess Louisa as granddaughter 
cf Frederick YI. 



TEEATY OF MAY. 



237 



" warranted " Treaty, from the tradesman of Bond Street, or 
Printing House Square. There is however this difference, 
that it is equally difficult to obtain a bag that is Eussian, and 
a Treaty that is not. 

This Article in the Times might appear to indicate a very 
superfluous care for the enlightenment of the English Nation, 
but in fact it was not to instruct England in respect to 
Denmark, but to overawe Denmark in the name of England. 
The slips of type, incomprehensible to the British public, 
were to be the declaration of England's judgment, and the 
exposition of her policy. Not a line appeared in any other 
paper. Well has a Eussian diplomatist said, " The Press is 
a Power which no intelligent Government will neglect ; " 
with what ease is it wielded when one Monster Journal, like 
Aaron's rod, has swallowed up all the rest. Now let us look 
at this Treaty. 

It commences as a Treaty of Guarantee for the maintenance 
of the " Integrity of the Danish Monarchy as connected with 
the general interests of the balance of Power ; " so far the 
counterpart of the Treaty of 1840 in respect to Turkey. Now 
the maintenance of the Integrity of a country has no reference 
to internal laws, but foreign aggression. In this there is no 
Guarantee given for the Integrity thus introduced. The 
Turkish Treaty of Integrity was to effect, as far as it could, 
the hereditary Separation of Egypt and to sanction the occu- 
pation of Constantinople by a Eussian military force. The 
Danish Treaty of Integrity is for the transfer of that Integrity 
to Eussia by the subversion of internal law. 

It goes on to state that the means of securing this Inte- 
grity is by the devolution of the Crown " upon the Male 
Line to the exclusion of Females that is, it abro- 
gates the Lex Regia, 

Article first declares, that with the assent of the various 
Cognates, and by their Eenunciations, the Crown is to 
devolve upon Prince Christian of Gliicksburg. This is in 
a breath admitting and denying the Lex Regia ; for though 
the Princess Louisa and his descendants might come in by the 



238 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



renunciations of those that stood before her, for which no 
Treaty was required, her husband could not so come in. 
But in the preamble the Male Succession is introduced to 
the exclusion of Females, whilst Prince Christian is made to 
renounce (in the letters of Renunciation not presented to 
Parliament) every claim in his own right, and to acknow- 
ledge that he comes in merely in virtue of the rights of 
his wife. The Article then goes on to declare the Princess 
Louisa to be " born a Princess of Hesse by order of Primo- 
geniture from Male to Male'' (What on earth has this to do 
with the matter ?) and thereafter the Succession is to follow 
the " Issue Male in the direct Line " of this Marriage. 

But why is Prince Christian necessary to secure the In- 
tegrity of the Danish Monarchy ? What superiority has he 
that he should be preferred before Prince Frederick, or the 
others who stand above him ? What excellence is there in his 
direct Line that all behind it should be cut off ? Why should 
a daughter, or a granddaughter of his be less qualified than 
a son, or grandson, to wear a Crown, transmitted through a 
female, and the integrity of whose possessions has been 
secured by the care and wisdom of all Europe ? The mean- 
ing of the Integrity is the supercession of Russia's Holstein 
claims ; those having been admitted, she drives her bar- 
gain. Prince Christian suited her on account of these 
various reasons which render the Treaty monstrous and con- 
tradictory. By fixing on him she forces seven renunciations 
from the Cognates, that of Princess Louisa included, and 
cuts out the whole of the Agnates, who would come in after 
her and before her husband as Cognates. She admits him 
on the condition of excluding the Females and the indirect 
branches of his own line, so that on their failure the whole 
of the ascending and descending Lines are utterly excluded. 
These are the grounds upon which the Protocol of Warsaw 
asserts that the " Integrity of the Banish Monarchy can be 
realised under no other consideration." 

But Prince Christian has to accept the Crown on condi- 
tions the most extraordinary. He has first to renounce all 



TEEATY OF MAY. 



23Q 



right in his own person ; he has secondly to accept the office 
merely as a delegation from his wife — a delegation in itself 
illegal, since by the Lex Regia no princess married to a reign- 
ing King can succeed. 

He however contributes his share to the figment of con- 
joint succession. Princess Louisa brings the inheritance 
exclusive of Holstein ! Prince Christian brings the Holstein 
inheritance ; but here again he is only a Locum tenens. 

" What/ 5 says the Danish report, " has been brought into 
effect by this transaction ? His Majesty, the Emperor, has 
deigned to transfer the exercise of the rights which he 
may have on Holstein to the Prince of Gliicksburg and his 
male descendants. 5 '* Tlrus, in the person of Prince Chris- 
tian of Gliicksburg, does Russia enter into virtual possession 
of Denmark, not only by the power she has exercised through 
her Allies in disposing of the crown at her good pleasure, 
but, also, by the very terms on which that crown is to be 
held, elaborately set forth in numerous acts of renunciation 
reciprocally obtained from the very parties who are put in 
possession, no less than from those who are excluded. 

When in 1773, Eussia first devised her renunciation in 
favour of the male descendants of Frederick the Third, at 
least no violence was done to the established order of succes- 
sion ; yet the two renunciations are accepted as identical in 
nature. By the one she bided her time, by the other she has 
seized it. 

There is an old maxim, " crawl to get up, and stand when 
yon are on the top :' 5 it is not, however, applicable to 
Prince Christian. The hill-top to which he will ascend is 
itself commanded, and it is depressed by his elevation. 
Denmark, long sunk under the weight of protection, has, by 
recent events, especially the war and the enormous debt 
which it has entailed, and then by the Intervention been wiped 
out from the number of independent States. But this is not 
all. In all the adjustments, care has been taken to ensure 

* Eeport, p. 33. 



240 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



invalidity ; Pretenders can be raised up against him on every 
field and on every principle. Eussia holds them in leashes 
in her right hand and in her left ; and she can upset a 
Dynasty of Copenhagen as easily as one of Paris. 

By the second Article, the high contracting parties, on 
the failure of the House of Glucksburg, "engage to take into 
consideration the further propositions which his Majesty the 
King of Denmark may deem it expedient to address to them." 
This King of Denmark will be the one so set up. While the 
rights of inheritance are laid prostrate, the faculty of the 
People of Denmark to dispose of itself in like manner 
disappears.* 

When I first advanced this view of the case, I was not 
aware that the Archivist of the Danish crown, the strenuous 
advocate of the Treaty, in so far as regards the line of 
Glucksburg, went to the full extent of my objections on this 
point. He says, " should Prince Christian and his sons die 
without male successors, who would then inherit ? no one is 
able to answer that question. Denmark would be disinherited 
by the abolition of the Lex Eegia, Holstein would invite a 
crowd of Pretenders — Augustenburg, Glucksburg, Imperial 
Eussia, and Oldenburg Princes." 

It is very possible that these Pretenders may arise, but 
there is another possibility which comes first, and that is, 
that Eussia shall herself claim as Heir-general. As the 
Gottorp line branches off from Frederick I, that is to say 
before the establishment in Denmark of Hereditary Eight, 
such a pretension might have little weight in a court of law; 
but with this Treaty before us, it must be evident that in the 
Court where this matter will have to be decided, the objection 

* "We are not ignorant that the arguments which maybe drawn 
from strict light to prove that the election of a successor by concert 
of the King and the Danish Diet, would in that alone be obligatory on 
the countries dependent on the Danish Crown. But these arguments 
are not generally admitted, and above all it appears that the Govern- 
ment does not acknowledge their force : it is therefore to be desired 
that they should never be advanced/' — Report, p. 54. 



TREATY OF MAY. 



24] 



will have none. Thus she reserves the threefold chance — 
nomination to the Crown, Pretenders to be set up, and Heir- 
ship -General ; to be used according to circumstances. 

But before these comes another, which is a certainty. 
Before the Treaty of the 8th of May, the Holstein claims 
might as a last resort have been disposed of by the 
cession of the district ; noio it cannot be got rid of, it 
is a millstone fastened round Denmark's neck. All other 
claims are abolished by Treaty, all other Succession in- 
terdicted, all right of the Danish people to act for them- 
selves destroyed; the Holstein claims alone maintain, ad- 
mitted by Denmark, recognised by the Powers. When 
then the Male Line now set up comes to be extinguished 
by the course of nature, or the decree of fate, the Heir 
to the fraction of Holstein will find himself Heir to the 
entire monarchy, the maintenance of the Integrity of which, 
as the Treaty tells us, is so intimately "connected with 
the general interest of the balance of power in Europe," and 
of such high " importance to the preservation of peace." 

As was natural, this Treaty, which " stultified 55 * the 
Governments which signed it, produced a similar effect 
upon the people for whom it was intended. The Danes, lost 
in its contradictions, while crushed under its weight, vainly 
endeavoured to fathom the purposes for which it was signed, 
or to discover the principles upon which it proceeded: 
to such a pitch did confusion rise, that the opposition in the 
Diet was based upon the Treaty itself. The learned writer 
to whom I have already referred, speaks as follows :— 

" Neither this London Treaty, nor the Warsaw Protocol, 
however little we may admire the pen of the publicist who 
excogitated the latter, really contains anything which compels 
the Government to throw up the succession for the kingdom 
of Denmark according to Lex Regia. The contracting Powers 

* " This Treaty is a masterpiece ; it has compromised and stul- 
tified every Minister and every Cabinet that has had anything to do 
with it. Thank Grod it was no work of mine !" — Words attributed 
to Lord MaVmesbury. 

11 



•242 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



undoubtedly executed these Treaties under the supposition 
that this law of succession would remain as before, only the 
person of Prince Christian being temporarily and for the nonce 
inserted. They could never dream of the Danish Government 
in direct contradiction to the 'note' laid before them, wishing 
to sacrifice the hereditary right of the Danish dynasty, and 
thereby transfer all legitimate claims into the hands of the 
Russian Gottorp house. The contracting Powers are there- 
fore justified in complaining that the unexpected plan now 
laid before the Parliament constitutes a new Danish State- 
right, one which they were by no means .prepared to support 
when they concluded the Treaty in question. 55 * 
He continues : — 

" The abrogation of the Succession by Lex Regia makes the 
House of Gottorp the sole legitimate Pretender to Holstein : 

THE INTRODUCTION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF THE INDIVI- 
SIBILITY of the Monarchy 5 enables this Pretender 
to extend his claims to the whole of the Danish 
Kingdom. Could the Great Powers have signed a Treatv to 
change first principles and make the Danish monarchy a 
Eussian Gottorp secundo-geniture." 

Up to the time that the Treaty was signed the question 
was never mooted as to Eussia coming in as Heir- General, 
or as succeeding to the whole in virtue of the fragment of 
Holstein; the piece had been a travesty of Hamlet with 
the part of the Prince of Denmark left out : there had 
therefore been no necessity to argue against an objection 
never raised ; in fact Eussia was heard of as renouncing 
claims, not as advancing pretensions. It was not till after 
the 8th of May that this view was presented, in this 
country, in my own pamphlet, printed and circulated within 
the same month, and towards the end of the year by Mr. 
Wegener's pamphlet, circulated in the Copenhagen Diet, 
These opinions gradually found their way to the public, 

* C. F. Wegener's < Defence for the Full Hereditary Eight,' p. 21. 



TREATY OF MAY. 



243 



raised opposition in the- Danish. Diet, and created consider- 
able alarm in influential quarters in this country; Eussia 
now found herself under the necessity of counteracting the 
effect, and her manner of doing so is highly characteristic 
of the power of secresy. Individuals have sought explana- 
tions from the Eussian Eepresentative, and after having 
received them have altered their tone. I speak not of soli- 
tary instances; the very same words have been repeated at 
remote points : — " I can assure you, that after the Line of 
Glucksburg Eussia will not come in." Pressed for expla- 
nation, they have refused any; invited to state what it is 
that is to prevent her coming in, or who it is that is to come 
in in her stead, they have declined to open their lips. 

The uninitiated will, no doubt, be startled by such a state- 
ment ; they may suppose that money is the argument in 
such cases employed. !N"o doubt money is there if necessary, 
and in heavy sums too ; but that, I say it by no means to 
the credit of the parties concerned, is seldom required. A. 
government that lias an object is so entirely master of those 
which have none, that it can work with the most trifling 
means : it only can meet with intelligent opposition in the 
case of an individual in a position of authority or influence, 
who combines in his own mind the faculties, and has worked 
out for himself the elements of knowledge which accrue to 
her from the long operations of her system. Such incidents 
must be exceedingly rare, if indeed they can be said in any 
case to be possible ; as well expect that a man, by natural 
intuition, should be able to lay down a railway, as that a 
European Statesman should be able to cope with a Eussian 
Diplomatist. The individuals to whom in the present case 
I refer, when under the necessity of making a public declara- 
tion, speak in this fashion : " The designs of Eussia are very 
alarming, and consequently all Europe is on the alert, so 
that no apprehension need to be entertained that she will 
be allowed to come in for Denmark the Danish minis- 
ter expressed himself thus in the Diet. Such is the theme 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



of the ' Foedrelandet/* which plays at Copenhagen the part 
of the 1 Times.' 

Mr. Wegener's pamphlet above quoted was made the 
subject of a note from the Eussian Government calling upon 
Denmark to declare herself; to avow, if she entertained 
them, her suspicions, or to punish the traducer. The 
author was disavowed, and although not displaced from 
his official situation, criminal proceedings have been taken 
against him before the Courts. This, then, is the point 
upon which Russia dares not explain herself. Before 
adverting to its solution I must notice two general maxims 
enunciated in the Treaty. 

The succession in Eugland is Female as well as Male, and 
so is by law the Succession in Denmark : why should England 

* The day after my arrival at Copenhagen, that paper in a ve- 
hement article, of which I got the credit, dwells on that feature 
of the Testament of Peter the Great, which prepares the double 
inheritance for Russia of the Black Sea and the Baltic : it tells a story 
of a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary being constantly kept in 
a travelling carnage and four horses waiting in the Palace Yard for 
the moment when it is to start with the cortege of a Eussian army 
for Constantinople : it continues: " With regard to the Sound, it is a 
different business altogether. Here there are no religious grounds. 
Doubtful and unpopular hereditary claims are not possessed of the 
power which religion exercises on popular passions. In the Sound 
instead of Legends, there are but hereditary pretensions j instead of 
the Holy Virgin, we have but Holstein-G-ottorp ; and in the place 
of the travelling carriage and four, the second article of the Treaty 
of London. More powerful agents will be required to render Den- 
mark and the North, Russian. The remainder of Europe besides 
will look with jealousy on such views on the part of the Czar; 
Hie evidences of that jealousy are getting more numerous from day to 
day (!) In the mean time it is well enough that we should all of 
us watch and pray lest we fall into temptation, and it is more 
especially the honnden duty of every Danish acuninistration with 
the utmost care to avoid even the semblance of a Eussian Protec- 
torship. It is by such means that Eussian policy in our days, 
iheB • £ : licy cf old, encircles the minor states by ties, which 
willia a short time cost them their independence," 



TREATY OF MAT. 



245 



adopt the principle of exclusive male Succession ? I put aside 
for the present, the results, and I ask on what English prin- 
ciple could this declaration be founded — does not a Queen 
sit upon our throne ? On what Danish principle could it 
be founded — -is the Princess Louisa a male ? 

Wliat Interest has England in the Integrity of the Danish 
Monarchy ? I speak not of the Holstein claims, but I ask 
how, after proposing the separation of Schleswig into two 
parts, and treating during three years the Duchies as 
independent of the Succession of Denmark, you can sud- 
denly proclaim the maxim of " Integrity ? " Is this to be 
accounted for by anything that has appeared? Even if 
you had in nowise sanctioned the pretensions of the 
Duchies, and if these pretensions were groundless, what 
right have you to interpose and decide the matter P* Let 
us look at the case with the help of the map. Supposing 
Eussia to extend her dominion, or her influence, over Den- 
mark, then if the Duchies were separated, the present Canal 
of the Eyder might be enlarged for the passage of sea-going 
vessels, and not only would the controlling power of the 
Sound be destroyed, but a channel opened, saving a cir- 
cuitous navigation of nearly 400 miles ; it must, therefore, 
be a primary object for England, from the moment that 
the substantive independence of Denmark is perilled, to 
separate from her the Duchies, f 

* See note at the end of the chapter on the "Distinct Succession 
of Denmark and the Duchies." 

f " The question of the Sound Dues is more closely connected with 
that of Succession in the Duchies than may be evident at first sight, 
By the new Tariff of the Schleswig-Holstein Canal, to commence 
from May 1, 1850, the number of articles subject to duty has 
been reduced, from 518 to 240. The preference can only be expected 
to be given to the Canal passage, if the expenses of the latter, com- 
pared with the Sound Dues, will hold out the prospect of a clear 
saving to the shipowner and merchant. This reasoning will hold 
good in the case of these parallel water communications being 
placed under the control of two different governments, when the 
Canal duty on the one hand, and the Sound duty on the other, will 



246 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



"Before you had wiped out the intermediate Lines, before 
you had limited the Gliicksburg Line itself, before you 
had established the principle of " Integrity," you had, if 
you interfered in the matter at all, one thing to do, and 
it was the only intelligible object for the interference of 
Foreign powers, to obtain, or enforce, Russia's renun- 
ciation of her claims on Holstein. This was the bar — - 
the only bar to the union under the Cognatic Line, or to 
the separation ; this was the only ground of Russia's inter- 
ference, and consequently the only danger which it involved. 
In 1773 the renunciation was made, but with a limit ; in 
1852 it is again made, and again with a reserve. Why did 
not the Powers require that it should be absolute? the 
Transaction in 1773 was between Denmark and Eussia 
alone ; then there was no " additional pledge for the security 
of the peace of Europe;" in 1852, this " additional pledge " 
is a sanction to these groundless claims. 

The claim, I say, is groundless, and if it were not, the 
Powers had no right to admit it since they had not examined 
it. If they interfere for " the peace of Europe" they cannot 
proceed upon Denmark's voluntary submission. 

It is groundless in feudal law, except as a claim upon the 
whole Duchy of Holstein, which is not advanced. 

If grounded, it is extinguished by compensation already 
received. The renunciation of 1773 was purchased by a 
Secret Treaty which gave to Eussia the faculty of disposing of 
the military and naval power of Denmark for her own 
aggrandisement : this faculty has been exercised in a manner 
to ensure that aggrandisement, and that not only at the 
expense of others, but also at the expense of the territory 

reciprocally act as a regulator upon each other. Kival interests will 
secure every facility to the public ; whereas, in the opposite case, 
any further reduction of the Sound dues would depend upon the 
issue of the repeated negotiations, in which Russia would once more 
enlist on the side of Denmark; or to say more justly, of that client 
of hers whom she might have succeeded in raising to the joint 
dominion of the Kingdom and the Duchies." — Professor "vTurm to 
Lord Palmerston on the Schleswig-Holstein Question, p, 16-18. 



TEEATY OP MAT. 



and power of Denmark itself. It was first called into operation 
when Gustavus III of Sweden was waging a successful war 
against her in the north, and the Turks waging one which 
might otherwise have issued favourably for them upon the 
Dnieper. She made use of the Treaty to cause Denmark to 
attack Sweden ; breaking the power of that State, she was 
enabled to terminate the war in the east in a manner which 
soon put her in possession of the Crimea and the Euxine.. The 
results were still more profitable in the north : the armed 
Neutrality followed, the prostration of the Scandinavian 
Kingdoms, the dominion of the Baltic, and finally the anni- 
hilation of Denmark's maritime power by England's reta- 
liation. These results are permanent ; they are not offered 
back, now that she resumes her right to a fragment of Hoi- 
st ein by a new renunciation a thousand times more pro- 
fitable than any possession. Let it be remembered that these 
Hereditary claims of Russia flow from an illegitimate 
daughter of Peter I married to the heir of the line of 
Gottorp, whose son ascended the Russian throne by a 
revolution. 

It may indeed be said that these consequences of the Secret 
Treaty depended upon the possession of other means and their 
use, and that if ability had been on the side of Denmark, and 
inability on the side of Russia, as it might have been, the 
Treaty woidd have borne no such fruits. I can admit to its 
fullest extent the objection, and place the issue solely on the 
next count. 

She got Delmenhorst and Oldenburg coiiclitionally on her 
renunciation. On her resuming her claims they were to 
revert to the Agnatic Line, or say, to Denmark. Can she 
simultaneously use the renunciations and possess the equiva- 
lent ? TVas not this the point which the Powers had to 
examine ; until they had decided upon it could they have 
treated with her at all ? 

In the negotiations not a word is dropped respecting the 
grand Duchy of Oldenburg, it is ceded to her absolutely 
by silence. If so, what claim can she have on Holstein ? 



243 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



Was there then any difficulty in treating for her renunciatior, 
leaving it even at her option to retain the one, or to retake tie 
other ? 

But I am understating the case ; it is no longer a portion 
of Holstein, but Holstein altogether. In the three Eeports 
presented to the Diet on the 10th January, 1853, the expres- 
sion of "portions of the Duchy of Holstein" is never intro- 
duced except when speaking of the King of Denmark ; when 
the claims of the Emperor are mentioned, it is as bearing 
upon the " ancient Duchy-fief of Holstein." In reference to 
the Grand Ducal portion acquired by the cession of 1773 this 
expression occurs : " doubts prevail as to the validity of the 
said right of inheritance, the pretensions of the Gottorp 
Lines, and the Eoyal Danish House being in conflict. It 
would appear, however, that the best means to preserve 
Holstein to the Monarchy is to renounce the pretensions of 
the Eoyal House to this Duchy." * 

Those at Copenhagen who dare to avow their apprehensions 
say that, it is not the direct succession of Eussia that 
they apprehend, but her dominating influence ; it is not her 
flag flying at Elsineur, but her control in the councils of 
the king whoever he might be. No doubt this is true, but 
not as a prospective case ; this is already secured. What can 
mean those multiplied arrangements, if Eussia contemplated 
nothing more than an influence and a control ? She wants 
possession; she has never stopped short of that, one hour 
after she could obtain it. If the line of Gliicksburg did, 
as it is possible, come in and go out within the year, a 
Eussian governor would occupy Fredericksburg just as he has 
occupied Eaktche-Serai, Teflis, and Warsaw. 

The Treaty is, however, signed in total ignorance, and the 
Administration which signed it, if it discovers gradually the 
deceptions practised upon it, is at all events in that position 
which is rendered by the word, committed. It falls from 
power, a new Ministry comes in. They are no longer in the 
dark ; now the error will be retrieved, the fraud repudiated, 
# Report of the CommissioD p. 41. 



TREATY OE MAY. 



249 



the infamous compact torn to shreds, and England released 
from the chain of subserviency. Not in the least i they too 
were committed by their acts — in opposition ; while free they 
had not exposed it, bound (every man in the Foreign 
Office is so), they must adopt it ; adopting it, conscious of its 
character, they will pursue it with bitterness if not with 
desperation : scarcely a milder term can be used when 
they persevere after the knowledge that the Constitution of 
Denmark is under the process of being crushed by successive 
dissolutions, in order to force the acceptance of a Treaiy 
purporting to be only the acknowledgment of an internal and 
spontaneous act. 

But another circumstance has brought into evidence the 
spirit, or rather the abjectness, of the new government. The 
brother of the Duke of Augustenburg, like the father of 
Peter III, has protested against a Treaty which deprived his 
House of its rights. This protest has been rendered all the 
more galling by being accompanied by an offer to resign 
every claim, he being the last who held out, in case that 
measures were taken to secure the Succession against Russia 
on the failure of the Line of Gliicksburg : this was putting 
the finger on the blot. After manifold endeavours to prevent 
the protest by compromising the parties, the Foreign Minister 
absolutely declared in Parliament that no protest had been 
made. * 

Lord Aberdeen has, however, one relief, and it is a standing 
ground — " I have never said a word in favour of the Treaty." 
Lord Aberdeen is always saddled with the carrying of Treaties 
which he will not approve, the responsibility of acts which he 
repudiates, and the execution of prophecies which he never 
made. He will not justify, but he will execute ; he will not 
predict, but perform. He is the only survivor of the band of 
spoilers who partitioned Denmark. In the next great 
European event, the Treaty which led to the Battle of 

* Lord John Russell had stated that it had been received, but 
refused to produce it, on the grounds of " inconvenience to the public 
service." 

11 § 



250 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



Navarino, we see hiin rehearsing to the letter his performance 
of to-day. The following words were uttered in the House 
of Lords, on the 19th of June, 1829. 

" Marquis of Clanricarde — The noble Earl (Aberdeen) laid 
great stress upon the fact of the Emperor of Russia having 
waived his rights as a belligerent in the Mediterranean, as 
affording facilities for the execution of the Treaty of London 
(6th July, 1827). All that we are yet acquainted with is, 
that Turkey is in danger, and that the Emperor of Russia 
has broken his engagements with impunity," S:c. kc. kc. 

" Lord Aberdeen — It is quite enough for Government to 
have it on their hands to execute the Treaty, without being 
obliged to prophecy hoio it is to be executed. I have never 
given any opinion as to this Treaty." 

"A first crime inoculates," says Machiavelli, " an endless 
series of uncontemplated crimes." A first heedlessness in 
responsible station, instils in like manner a virus, which will 
break out on all the members, and finally settle on the 
heart ; — it may show itself, too, in morbid fortunes, and in 
putrid fame. This is the least deplorable of its consequences; 
should the secret disease invest itself with the halo of hectic 
health, then the very air is polluted ; and nations breathe the 
infection. 

The game is Russian : the play, English : being upon the 
same line, both must equally cultivate perfidy and cowardice 
in the members of these devoted families ; the interest is 
indeed more immediately English, it being the British minis- 
ter who would be incommoded should there be found amongst 
them honour or character. It is not to St. Petersburgh that the 
victims of persecution will rush : it is not the Nestor of 
Russian diplomacy whose equanimity will be shipwrecked 
between the rocks of conscience and the shoals of office ; it is 
not from his lips that will distil the milk of sourness, or the 
honey of insanity ; it is not the chief of the House of 
Romanoff who will have to writhe under a family insult, or 
to cower under a Cabinet incubus. On the banks of the 
gelid Neva no scandalous exhibition will be made of heretical 



TEEATT OE MAT. 



251 



honesty, and impious worth. In the great temple of the 
Sarmatian Moloch nothing disturbs the solemnity of wor- 
ship : secular cares devolve on the ministering priests of 
the subsidiary chapel of Downing Street. 

How do you stand with your allies in this compact as to 
matters of business ? You have protested against the viola- 
tion of the Treaty of Vienna in Cracow : your Minister has 
authoritatively announced another violation of the Treaty of 
Vienna, by the establishment of the Eussian quarantine at the 
mouths of the Danube : the same power has violated the 
Treaty of the 6th of July, 1827, by forcing from Turkey 
the surrender of that island upon which the quarantine is 
established. I restrict myself to these three infractions ot 
public law by the Government who has proposed to you this 
Treaty, and I ask if this and similar acts are not the legiti- 
mate consequence of holding any relations whatsoever with 
that Government ? If no Treaty can or does in law or right- 
exist between Eussia and England, in consequence of her past 
acts, can any Treaty which you now enter into with her be 
more valid than these violated compacts ? And what is to 
be said of the men who continue under such circumstances to 
treat with her? When Catherine II proposed a new Treaty 
to Kien Lung, his Mantchu Majesty replied, <c Let her learn 
first to observe the old." But, alas, when she turns her 
face to the setting sun, she catches no Tartars. 

But there is still one hope — a lingering hope which has 
clung to me through disheartening vicissitudes. Every con- 
stitution in its foundation has possessed an original germ 
and fibre ; and decay, or its equivalent — mismanagement, 
results not so much from the introduction of evil novelties 
as from the obscuration of its inherent light, and the dis- 
turbance of its severally balancing and compensating func- 
tions. The suppressed element in our present state is the 
Eegal one : still it subsists ; it may be evoked. This is no 
hypothesis ; on two signal occasions within a couple of 
years, we have seen the Prerogative exerted, once in the 



252 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



appointment of a Ministry ; once by the coercion of the 
Foreign Department. 

In the first case (the second in point of time), the Minister 
to whom the important experiment was entrusted, failed to 
perceive its bearing, and consequently the means of its 
execution. I refer, however, to the fact, not to the failure. 
In the second, something more was revealed than power 
latent in the Crown ; there was also manifested ability and 
courage in the Sovereign. The Queen had detected, even in 
matters within her own knowledge, that she had been over- 
reached by the Minister, up to that time her sole guide and 
instructor. 

On this she negotiated with the Chief Minister to obtain 
that she should no longer be exposed to deception by his 
subordinate. On the repetition of the offence, that subordi- 
nate was excluded from the Cabinet, and the Queen required 
(for the fact could not otherwise have occurred) the Prime 
Minister to produce in Parliament the document consigning 
the previous compact.* The people of this country might 
then have learned that in the Crown they possessed a check 
upon faction, and in the Queen a defence against malversa- 
tion. The experiment again failed j again has that Minister 
been forced upon the Crown by colleagues who, in excluding 

* " The Queen requires, first, that Lord Palmerston will dis- 
tinctly state what he proposes in a given case, in order that the Queen 
may know as distinctly to what She is giving Her Eoyal Sanction. 
Secondly, that having once given Her sanction to a measure, that it 
be not arbitrarily altered or modified by the minister. Such an act 
She must consider as failing in sincerity towards the Crown, and 
justly to be visited by the exercise of Her Constitutional right of 
dismissing that minister. She expects to be kept informed of what 
passes between him and the Foreign Ministers before important de- 
cisions are taken, based upon that intercourse ; to receive the Foreign 
despatches in good time ; and to have the draughts for Her approval 
sent to Her in sufficient time to make Herself acquainted with their 
contents before they must be sent off. The Queen thinks it better 
that Lord John Eussell should show this letter to Lord Palmerston." 
— Bead in the House of Commons, by Lord John Eussell, February 
3d, 1353. 



TEEATY OF MAY. 



253 



him from the Foreign Department, avow their concurrence 
with the Queen in their judgment of his character,* But 
again I refer to the fact and not to the experiment. 

Now, this Minister is the man who planned the Treaty of 
the 8th of May, without whose concerted activity or mea- 
sured inaction, neither could Denmark have been compro- 
mised against the Duchies, nor the Duchies against Denmark, 
Prussia and Germany involved in the war, or the war itself 
prolonged until the occasion was afforded for that restoration 
of the " Integrity of the Monarchy " which we have before us. 
Is it to be supposed that these transactions had no share in 
the judgment and act of the Queen ? is it safe for a subse- 
quent Minister to pursue a scheme planned under such 
auspices, to the persecution and downfall of Princes of the 
House of Guelph, and no less connected with her Majesty by 
the ties of blood, than England is connected with them by 
those of interest ? 

What, if it did apply, would be the value of the argument — 
" Sanctity of Treaties." With what wonder would such 
words, issuing from the lips of an English Minister, be lis- 
tened to by the Kajahs of India, the Ameers of Scinde, the 
chieftains of Affghanistan, the Shahs of Persia, the nobles of 
Poland, and the burghers of Cracow. Shall the Dukes and 
Princes of the Baltic receive as a holy word that which the 
rest of the world knows to be a lie ? Or are they treated 
exceptionally, not being barbarians. Yes 1 there barbarism 
— here civilization, justifies perfidy. England is equally dex- 
terous at keeping and at breaking words — breaking that fairly 
pledged in honour, keeping that filched from her by fraud ; 
but true in both to a simple rule — the service of the Czar. 

Eussia is a monster that devours ; but it is one also which 

* " Where he is, he can do no harm ;" such is the consolation of 
his colleagues, when they have resigned to liim the Post Office, 
through the instrumentality of which, even when not directly under 
his control, he obtained in former years the exclusion, or " descent," 
of Lord Grey from office. But wherever that minister is, he must 
of necessity become everything. 



254 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



exists only by its voracity, xiround its den it has thinned 
the hunting grounds, and it has long remained with spring 
too short to reach, and growl too fierce to allure. It then 
got keepers, who, in dread of being devoured themselves, 
began to foray for its wants. Of those keepers, the indivi- 
duals called " Foreign Ministers" in England have been the 
most venturesome and persevering. " What now is to be 
done with the monster ?" exclaims the simple and agitated 
mind. The answer is easy : starve it ; cease to heap its 
trough with lacerated laws — cease to cast fractured sceptres 
and diadems into its sty, and, like the wolf, it will die in 
silence. 

The plains of Europe have been ensanguined to bar 
heraldic claims, affecting a German fortress or an Italian 
dukedom ; the case never arose of a union through Here- 
ditary succession, of powerful kingdoms. Since the time 
of Charlemagne (that is to say, in the course of a thousand 
years), the prospect of such an event has presented itself but 
once, and that prospect, centuries before the contingency 
could occur, moved all Europe as by a present danger, 
namely, the testament of Charles III. 

England, though discomfited in the war which ensued, and 
forced to recognise Philip V as King of Spain, still refused 
to lay down arms until he on his side, and the King of 
Erance upon the other, renounced every claim which the 
descendants of either might have to inherit simultaneously 
the two Crowns. This was carried into effect, not by a 
Treaty between England, Holland, and Austria, but by legal 
instruments executed by time Monarchs, and confirmed by the 
Cortes of Castile. These acts are recorded and incorporated 
in the Treaty of Utrecht, their validity does not depend upon 
any national stipulation ; and although the Treaty of Utrecht 
has lapsed by incidents these Eenunciations are as binding 
as on the day on which they were signed. 

Judging by events, so far from concluding the convictions 
of Europe in this respect weakened within a century and a 
half, we must infer them to have been strengthened. Only 



NOTES. 



255 



six years ago when the power of Spain had ceased to be 
alarming, and after the hereditary principle had been swept 
away in France, Europe was all but plunged in a war (the 
dynasty in Erance was upset) by the marriage of a princess 
of Spain to a junior son of Louis Philippe, because it was 
supposed that that alliance might invalidate the non-existing 
Treaty of Utrecht. 

Here then is the precedent for the course to be pursued in 
reference to Denmark. If Eussia has no designs, there can 
be no difficulty in obtaining such a renunciation ; if there be 
difficulty, then is the necessity proved, But having obtained 
her enfeoffment of the Sound she keeps the attention of 
Europe fully occupied about the keys of the Church of Jeru- 
salem. 



Note I. 

MOTIVES OE ENGLAND IN ACCEDING TO 
RUSSIA'S PEOPOSALS. 
(See p. 235.) 

From the c Weser Zeitvmg/ April, 1853. 

Never has Denmark been in more absolute dependence 
upon Eussia than at present, and in such rapid downward 
progress from the summit of imaginaiy success. Count 
Eeventlow, the active Minister of Denmark in London, had 
long been preparing the first London Protocol, in which the 
Integrity of the Danish Monarchy was pointed out as a 
thing to be wished ; Eussia was seconding, England was 
temporising ; and Prussia at that time kept so far aloof, that 
the Chevalier Bunsen, on August 1, 1850, even handed a 
note of protest to Lord Palmerston. Eussia availed herself 
of the confusion brought about in the Piraeus by Lord 
P aimer ston and of the favour shown by him to M. Pacifico, 
to instruct M. Brunnow to demand his passport. Lord 
Palmerston, apparently surprised, demanded whether there 
was not any means of adjusting the difference. To be sure, 
was the reply, — the signature of the London Protocol. That 



256 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



signature was given, — and this was the first triumph of R?issia, 
In enacting the bully against diminutive Greece, Lord Pal- 
merston became the instrument through which on the Baltic 
the dominion of Eussia was increased and established more 
firmly. But Eussia was a gainer — not on the Baltic only, 
but also in Greece # and Turkey. * * * On the 23d of 
August, 1850, the Austrian Plenipotentiary joined the Pleni- 
potentiaries of Denmark, France, Great Britain, Eussia, 
Sweden, and Norway. His accession, it is true, contained a 
reservation of the rights of the German Confederation ; but 
these rights had already been most deeply violated by the 
very fact of the Protocol. 



Extract from "A Protest against the Theory of the Danish 
Collective Monarchy, and against the attempt ai realising it 
by means of the Treaty of the 8th of May, 1852. Manheim, 
1852. Attributed to Heinrich von Gagem: — 
(See p. 255.) 

Denmark, Eussia, and France had, from 1846, been 
active in urging the institution of the Collective Monarchy. 
In the spring of 1850, a favourable conjuncture had arisen, 
which Eussia was the first to perceive, in the unfortunate 
division of the German Powers ; secondly, in the disgust of 
the English Ministry at the long delay of the negotiations of 
peace at Berlin ; and last, not least, in the personal embar- 
rassment of Lord Palmerston, whose ministerial position had 
been endangered. 

In consequence of the intervention of England against 
Greece, in behalf of the sordid claims of a M. Pacifico, a 
pseudo Englishman, resident at Athens, and generally speak- 
ing, in consequence of the extent to which England, under 
Lord Palmerston's guidance, thought itself warranted to carry 
the support given to Englishmen in foreign parts, England 
had got into so serious a scrape with Eussia, that the Eus- 
sian Ambassador in London had, in solemn indignation, 
announced his expected recall. At the same time, Lord 
Palmerston's foreign policy had been in Parliament submitted 
to severe criticism, and at the close of the debate the ministe- 
rial majority was so small that the victory was almost equi- 
valent to a defeat. Some diplomatic access, to assuage the 
Tories, the adjustment of that difference, and an apparent 



NOTES. 



257 



reconciliation with Russia, was under such circumstances 
what Lord Palmerston could not do without if he wanted to 
remain at the helm. 

The accession of England to that Protocol was the first 
desideratum, and Lord Palmerston, under the circumstances, 
had declared himself ready to sign, thereon Brunnow pre- 
ferred to accept the satisfaction demanded by Russia in the 
shape of the signature by the English Minister of the Proto- 
col, in preference to his departure from London. 

After the readiness of Lord Palmerston had been intimated, 
the thing was delayed for several weeks, ostensibly in conse- 
quence of some modifications proposed by England, which, 
without neutralizing the poison of the nut, were intended to 
soften somewhat the taste of the shell, and which at last 
were agreed upon without any great difficulty. That it 
would oppose, that not only the draught of the Protocol, but 
the plan itself had been kept as a perfect mystery from Prussia, 
and even from Austria, until within a few days previous to 
the first conference. The foreign powers appear to have been 
conscious that the German powers, as representatives of the 
German Confederation, could not in honour have signed a 
Protocol which was exclusively calculated to injure that Con- 
federation in all and any claims and rights which had proved 
the object of the negotiations, and of the war, a war, in 
which Germany had not been vanquished, and could not 
therefore have lost the object at stake. 

At last, in July 4, 1850, a Conference was summoned 
together in order to come to an agreement on the Protocol, 
and to this conference were the representatives of Austria 
and Prussia invited in their turn. 

It must, however, be granted, that the Protocol was but of 
trifling signification compared with the Treaty of May 8, 
1852, the signatures of which, on the part of England, 
Lord Palmerston has not officially to account for. 

The main points of difference are the following :— 

1st. The Protocol of June 2, 1850, in its first article, 
merely conveys the unanimous desire of the powers, which the 
present status gave of the possessors of the Danish Crown 
may be maintained in its integrity, whereas by article 2d of 
the Treaty of May 8, 1852, the principle of the "integrity of 
the Danish Monarchy 55 is laid down and recognised as a per- 
manent one. 

2d. The Protocol of June 2, 1850, in its 2d article, does 



258 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



not actually alter the right of succession in Denmark and in 
Schleswig-Holstein, as it is announced to have been altered by 
article 1 of the Treaty of May 8, 1852 ; but it is only declared 
to be a very wise view of the King of Denmark to intend to 
alter the succession in the Eoyal Dynasty, in order to facilitate 
those measures, by means of which the Danish Monarchy may 
eventually be kept together. 

At all events, Lord Palmerston, in signing the Protocol of 
June 2, 1850, was acting con trary to tlie duty of England and 
contrary to the honour of a statesman; for, while that was 
going on in London, England icas still enacting the part of 
mediator at Berlin, and the negotiations for peace, which only 
attained this conclusion on July 2, 1850, the Conference taking 
place in London on July 4th, before that event (the signature 
of the peace of Berlin) could be known in London. If the part 
of a mediator is to be exempt from the character of per- 
fidiousness, it presupposes a certain degree of impartiality. 



Note II. 

TREATY RELATIVE TO THE SUCCESSION OF THE 
CROWN OF DENMARK. 

Signed at London, May 8, 1852. 
[Ratifications exchanged at London, June 19, 1852.] 

In the name of the Most Holy and Indivisible 
Trinity. 

Preamble. Her Majesty the Queen of the United King- 
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, His Majesty the Emperor 
of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, the Prince Presi- 
dent of the French Republic, His Majesty the King of 
Prussia, His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, and 
His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway, taking into 
consideration that the maintenance of the integrity of the 
Danish Monarchy, as connected with the general interests of 
the balance of power in Europe, is of high importance to 
the preservation of peace, and that an arrangement by which 
the succession to the whole of the dominions now united 
under the sceptre of His Majesty the King of Denmark, 
should devolve upon the male line, to the exclusion of females, 



NOTES. 



259 



would be the best means of securing the integrity of that 
Monarchy, have resolved, at the invitation of His Danish 
Majesty, to conclude a Treaty, in order to give to the 
arrangements relating to such order of succession, an ad- 
ditional pledge of stability by an act of European acknow- 
ledgment. 

Article I. After having taken into serious consideration 
the interests of his Monarchy, His Majesty the King of 
Denmark, with the assent of His Eoyal Highness the 
Hereditary Prince, and of his nearest cognates, entitled to 
the succession by the Eoyal Law of Denmark, as well as in 
concert with his Majesty the Emperor of all the Eussias, 
Head of the elder branch of the House of Holstein- 
Gottorp, having declared his wish to regulate the order of 
succession in his dominions, in such manner that, in default 
of issue male in a direct line from King Frederick III 
of Denmark, his Crown should devolve upon his Highness 
the Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderbourg- 
Glticksbourg, and upon the issue of the marriage of that 
Prince with her Highness the Princess Louisa of Schleswig- 
Holstein-Sonderbourg-Gliicksbourg, born a Princess of 
Hesse, by order of Primogeniture, from male to male ; the 
High Contracting Parties, appreciating the wisdom of the 
views which have determined the eventual adoption of that 
arrangement, engaged by common consent, in case the con- 
templated contingency shoidd be realized, to acknowledge in 
His Highness the Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein- 
Sonderbourg-Glucksbourg, and his issue male in the direct 
line by his marriage with the said Princess, the right of 
succeeding to the whole of the dominions now united under 
the sceptre of His Majesty the King of Denmark. 

Article II. The High Contracting Parties, acknowledg- 
ing as permanent the principle of the integrity of the Danish 
Monarchy, engage to take into consideration the further pro- 
positions which His Majesty the King of Denmark may deem 
it expedient to address to them, in case (which God forbid) the 
extinction of the issue male, in the direct line, of His High- 
ness the Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderbourg- 
Glucksbourg, by his marriage with Her Highness the 
Princess Louisa of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderbourg-Gliicks- 
bourg, born a Princess of Hesse, should become imminent. 

Article III. It is expressly understood that the reciprocal 
rights and obligations of His Majesty the King of Denmark, 



200 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



and of the Germanic Confederation, concerning the Duchies 
of Holstein and Lauenberg, rights and obligations established 
by the Federal Act of 1815, and by the existing Federal 
right, shall not be affected by the present Treaty. 

Article IV. The High Contracting Parties reserve to 
themselves to bring the present Treaty to the knowledge of 
the other Powers, and to invite them to accede to it. 

Article V. The present Treaty shall be ratified, and the 
ratifications shall be exchanged at London at the expiration 
of six weeks, or sooner if possible. 

In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have 
signed the same, and have affixed thereto the seal of their 
amis. 

Done at London, the eighth day of May, in the year of 
Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. 

(l.s.) Malmesbtjry. (l.s.) Bille. 

(l.s.) Ktjbeck. 

(l.s.) A. TValewski. 

(l.s.) Bunsen. 

(l.s.) Brtjnnow. 

(l.s.) Kehausen. 

Note III. 

ARTICLE OF THE TIMES, MAY 11, 1852. 
(See p. 236.) 

It is a fortunate circumstance for the Earl of Malmesbury 
that, within the short period that he has held the seals of the 
Foreign Office, he has already had the opportunity of signing 
a Treaty with all the great Powers which restores peace to an 
important part of Northern Europe, secures tJie integrity of 
the Danish monarchy, and provides upon a safe basis and by 
an equitable compromise, for the eventual succession to that 
Qroicn. But, in fact, this question had been so fully consi- 
dered for the last few years, and the negotiations had already 
been so actively carried on in all parts of Europe, that, upon 
the arrival of M. de Bille, the Danish Plenipotentiary, in 
London, nothing remained to be done by the Conference 
but to complete its work by signing the instruments already 
agreed upon. This act was concluded on Saturday, the 8th 
of May, at the Foreign Office, and, as the Treaty was imme- 
diately forwarded to Copenhagen for ratification, it may now 



NOTES. 



261 



be considered that every part of this harassing controversy is 
brought to a close, and that the future peace of the country 
is secured, while the causes of past irritation and hostility are 
removed. For nearly six years the question of the Danish 
succession in the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein has dis- 
turbed the tranquillity of Northern Europe, for it was in 1846 
that the late King of Denmark published his letters patent on 
the order of inheritance in the Duchies. But the train had 
long before been laid by the intrigues of the Augustenburg 
family, and the explosion was greatly assisted by the convul- 
sions which soon afterwards took place in Germany, followed 
by the temporary ascendancy of revolutionary principles at 
Frankfort and Berlin. We need scarcely remind our readers, 
that throughout the chances and perils of this difficult period, 
we never despaired for an instant of a cause which was sup- 
ported by the whole authority of public law, and defended by 
the spirit of the Danish people. The odds against them were 
overwhelming, but right has prevailed. Denmark owes her 
success to no Foreign Power, for throughout the contest she 
received no active military or naval succour. But she had 
the goodwill and the respect of Europe ; she was upheld by 
public opinion, to which, we trust, we may have in some de- 
gree contributed ; and when at length Lord Palmerston was 
induced to lay doicn the principles which were established on 
the 2d of August, 1850, by the Protocol of London, the 
rights of Denmark were saved. 

It will be remembered that the cause of this dispute was, 
that in the probable event of the failure of issue to the eldest 
male line now reigning in Denmark, the several dominions of 
that Crown mould pass, according to different laws of succes- 
sion, and the monarchy ivould consequently have been divided. 
Denmark Proper would have descended through a female 
branch to the Princes of Hesse Cassel ; Holstein would have 
followed the strict line of male succession, because it was a 
fief of the German Empire ; and the succession of Schleswig 
was disputed, one party contending that it followed the 
descent of the Crown of Denmark, the other that it was in- 
dissolubly united to Holstein. To meet these difficulties, the 
course which has now been successfully adopted was to select 
one scion of the Royal family as its common heir ; to obtain 
renunciations of the conflicting and collateral interests of all 
other parties, and to place the whole of these arrangements 
tinder the collective sanction of Europe. The next heir to the 



203 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



Crown of Denmark, in the event of the King's demise without 
issue, is His Majesty's uncle, Ferdinand, a Prince of sixty 
years of age, married, and likewise without issue. On his 
death it is presumed that the reigning line will become 
extinct. The present Treaty, therefore, recognises as the 
next heir after him Prince Christian, of the line of Sonder- 
burg Gliicksbourg, who is married to Princess Louise of 
Hesse Cassel, a grand- da tighter of King Frederick VI of Den- 
mark (!), by the eldest daughter of that Sovereign, who 
became the wife of Landgrave William of Hesse. The issue 
of the marriage of Prince Christian and the Princess Louise 
of Hesse consists of four children, the eldest a boy about 
nine years old ; and this young Prince, therefore, represents 
both the male and the female line of succession to the Kingdom 
and the Duchies, though not in the first degree. The line of 
Augustenburg is senior to the line of Sonderburg Gliicks- 
bourg, but it is attainted for the part it took in the late con- 
test, which was mainly fomented by those Princes in order 
to secure and extend their men exclusive pretensions by the dis- 
memberment of the Danish monarchy. The Duke of Augus- 
tenburg has, therefore, forfeited his rights, and stands excluded 
from the amnesty ; but an arrangement has now, we believe, 
been concluded between him and the King of Denmark, by 
which his estates in the Duchy of Schleswig are to be pur- 
chased at a high valuation, and the proceeds will suffice to 
provide liberally for his subsistence and station. No further 
difficulty is, therefore, to be apprehended in that quarter, and 
it is comparatively immaterial whether his renunciation has 
taken place. But the elder members of the Hessian branch 
had undoubted rights to the Crown of Denmark, which they 
have honourably renounced in favour of the husband and 
children of the Princess Louise, without exacting any com- 
pensation. The Emperor of Russia, as representative of the 
line of Holstein Gottorp, had rights on one portion of the 
Duchy of Holstein ; for the act of cession, confirmed and 
executed by the Grand Duke Paul, on his coming of age, in 
1773, was exclusively in favour of the male line reigning in 
Denmark, and in the event of the extinction of the male 
line that renunciation so made by the father of the present 
Emperor Nicholas would have become null and void. Far 
from showing any eagerness to avail himsp.lf of this circum- 
stance to acquire a preponderating influence in that part 
of Europe, it is due to the Court of Russia to state that 



NOTES. 



2G3 



they have never attempted to sacrifice the general welfare of 
the Banish monarchy to any petty interest, and that the Em- 
peror has been constantly foremost in promoting this negotia- 
tion, of which a renewal of his father's cession of all claims 
on Holstein forms an essential part. Throughout this trans- 
action Kussia has acted with great judgment (!) and good 
faith, and, although her own interests are deeply involved in 
all that concerns the entrance to the Baltic, she has sought 
to gain no advantage for herself, but simply to strengthen 
and preserve the independent rights of Denmark. In like 
manner Erance, under the successive Governments of Louis 
Philippe, Lamartine, Cavaignac, and Louis Napoleon, has 
pursued the same frank and consistent line of conduct 
towards Denmark. The difficulties came, as is well known, 
from the side of Germany, for this question was curiously 
intermingled with the political passions of the time, and the 
song of " Schlesioig -Holstein mecrumschlungun" was for 
many months the ga ira of the German revolution. At 
length, however, the restoration of the legitimate federal 
authority in Frankfort terminated the hostilities in the Duchies ; 
and, in spite of the scorn and resentment with which our 
announcement of the Danish Protocol of 1850 was received 
in Germany, when the Prussian Envoy in London declined 
to sign that document, we have now great satisfaction in re- 
cording the fact, that all differences of opinion between the 
great Powers have disappeared, and that Chevalier Bunsen 
Jdmself has placed his name by the side of the Plenipo- 
tentiaries of all the other Powers in this final arrangement ! 
We may, therefore, now invoke his high testimony to the 
soundness of the policy which that Protocol was intended to 
establish ; and if any sacrifices have been made by Prussia 
before she arrived at that conclusion, we sincerely hope that 
she may be rewarded for them by the establishment of a 
cordial alliance between herself and Denmark, whose geogra- 
phical position and maritime power make her a neighbour of 
the utmost value to the Prussian dominions. Upon the whole, 
this Treaty is another proof that in spite of the most serious 
obstacles and the most violent passions, the active, intelligent, 
and pacific diplomacy of our day does contrive to avert the 
calamities of general war, and even when hostilities are 
raging, to confine them, as far as possible, within a narrow 
compass ! In any other age, it is highly probable that the 
Danish struggle would have led to far more formidable 



2G4 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



results (!) and, although it was too long protracted, because 
vigorous means were not early employed to check it, the termi- 
nation of the whole negotiation proves that the great Powers 
will see justice done and peace preserved. 

(Whilst the correspondence, amounting to thousands of 
folios, was passing between the Governments, not a whisper 
reached the public of any plan for altering the* succession of 
Denmark. So soon as the matter is concluded the Article 
appears : no other paper has a word upon the subject. If 
any body does give it a moment's consideration, it is to 
console himself with the belief that this Treaty has " restored 
peace to Denmark/' and "removed the causes of past irrita- 
tion.") 



Note IV. 

DISTINCT SUCCESSION OF DENMARK AND 
THE DUCHIES. 

(See page 245.) 

The male succession in the Duchies, whether mediate or 
immediate, has always been assumed up to the negotiations 
ending in the Treaty of May; amongst the documents 
presented to the Danish Diet, there is an argument against the 
Agnatic Succession : but the matter has never been brought to 
any judicial or diplomatic solution. In the Treaty of May, the 
question is wholly evaded, and the Agnatic Line is passed 
over without mention, whether as to claims upon the 
Duchies, or as to Cognatic claims upon Denmark ; it may, 
therefore, be desirable to point out the documents, containing 
the data, requisite for a decision. 

In 1232, the Duchy of Schleswig appears as a Hereditary 
Male Eief of the Crown of Denmark. 

In 1326, an investiture took place, in express terms as an 
Hereditary Eief by tenure of Knight service, the Dominium 
directum and utile, being vested in the Court, the Dominium 
supremum being alone reserved to the Crown. 

In 1459, the Duchy reverted to the Crown as an Escheat 
on failure of right heirs of Duke Athol. 



NOTES. 



265 



In 1460, the right of electing a Duke and Count from 
amongst the heirs of Christian the First was established. 

In 1553, stipulations were entered into, fixing the means 
of adjustment by Arbitration, in cases of differences arising 
between the Crown of Denmark and the Duchies. 

In 1570 and 1642, Imperial diplomas for the counties of 
Oldenburg and Delmenhorst to the Danish Kings and the 
Dukes of Holstein, with reversion to their Agnates. 

In 1580, the division took place into Eoyal and Ducal, or 
Gottorp portions. 

In 1581, a partition of the succession of John Duke of 
Schleswig and of Holstein was made between Frederick the 
Second and Adolph, Duke of Schles wig-Hoist ein, by Arbi- 
tration of the Elector of Saxony. 

In 1608, Duke John Gottorp, with the sanction of Christian 
the Fourth, as Suzerain of Schleswig, entailed the succession 
in the Gottorp portion upon his eldest male heir in right of 
primogeniture. 

In 1610, Frederick the Third established an analogous 
family statute for the Eoyal portion. 

In 1636, Defensive Treaty between Christian the Fourth 
and Frederick Duke of Schleswig-Holstein. 

In 1658, the Treaty of Copenhagen, sanctioned by the 
Danish Senate, ceded the Sovereignty over the Gottorp portion 
of the Duchy of Schleswig to the Duke of (Holstein- Gottorp) 
and granted a diploma of Sovereignty by which the Duke and 
his male descendants were released from all feudal obligations 
as vassals of Denmark, and the Sovereignty was ceded to 
them. The King at the same time ceded to himself as Lord 
of the Eoyal Duchies of Schleswig the Sovereignty over it, 
with an express reservation of the reversionary interests of 
the Crown of Denmark in the Duchies upon the extinction of 
the respective Male Lines. The cession of the Sovereignty 
was then limited to the male descendants of the Duke, so 
that the Fief was not abolished, but the sovereignty sub modo 
transferred. The King of Denmark, however, had no power 
whatever over the Sovereignty. 

In 1660, the succession to the Crown of Denmark, which 
was till then elective, became hereditary in the male and 
female descendants of Frederick III, subsequently regulated 
by the LexEegia in 1665. 

This change in the succession to the Crown of Denmark 
could only affect the succession in the Sovereignty of the 

l 12 



266 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



Duchy of Schleswig as far as it followed the succession to the 
Crown of Denmark. 

It might in accordance with the Lex Eegia descend to 
females, although the succession in the Lordship might still 
be governed by the Feudal Law. 

In 1721, the re-union of the Gottorp Duchy with the Royal 
Duchy of Schleswig took place, and formal homage to the King 
of Denmark as sovereign, Lord Paramount of the Duchy, was 
rendered cc Secundum tenorum legis regiae." It is a serious 
question whether the Royal and Gottorp portions of the Duchy 
were then united as one allodial Duchy with the kingdom of 
Denmark, so as to become subject to the same law of Hereditary 
Succession, or whether the Gottorp portion was merely re- 
incorporated with the Royal portion, and the ancient feudal 
Constitution of the entire Duchy continued. 

In 1773, the Grand Duke Paul renounced, as head of the 
elder Gottorp Line, all his rights to the Duchy of Schleswig 
in favour of the King of Denmark and the Heirs of the 
Crown. The head of the younger Gottorp Line had already 
done the same in 1750. 

Catherine of Russia, in the provisional Treaty of 1767, 
undertook that all the surviving Princes of the House of 
Holstein Gottorp should renounce, and by the Treaty of 1773 
the Counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst were ceded by 
the King of Denmark in exchange, as an endowment for the 
younger branches. 



Note V. 

EXCLUSION OF THE CLAIMS OF THE LINE 
OF AUGUSTENBURG. 

The pretensions of the Augustenburgs, in one shape or 
another, cover the whole of this extensive field, yet they 
have never been raised in any manner. They are the only 
Pretenders who can become dangerous, through the exclusion 
of the Duchies from the settlement and their consequent 
alienation, and the support they might receive from Germany. 
These consequences have struck all the Danish writers, but 
every step has been avoided to close the door. 

Considering the case from a Russian point of view, there 



NOTES. 



267 



are various considerations which coincide to render this 
ambiguity desirable. The first of these is the opportunity of 
a new Civil War in Denmark : this is a matter which affects 
not Denmark alone, but Prussia also and Germany. Here is 
a lever for the convulsion of those countries, and from it may 
not be improbably worked out a Eussian intervention at 
Berlin. Independently, however, of those ulterior objects, 
there were reasons so strong as to amount to a necessity, for 
excluding the discussion of those claims at the present mo- 
ment : they consist in — 

1. The Agnatic Succession in the Duchies. 

2. The Cognatic Succession in the Kingdom. 

3. The Eeversion of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst. 

4. The Heirship-General. 

The first point would have raised the question of the 
Integrity of the Monarchy, which Eussia had to settle as a 
preliminary matter, so as to get the Duchies through the 
Kingdom, or the Kingdom through Holstein. 

The second would have interfered with the nomination of 
Prince Christian, the Agnatic Line coming before as Cognatic 
(the mother of the present Duke had indeed given a renun- 
ciation, but we know what value attaches to such instru- 
ments). 

The third is of the gravest importance, for, if only raised, 
the Holstein claims fell to the ground. 

As to the Heirship-General it was impossible for Eussia to 
have pronounced herself either way. If she admitted the 
claim she acknowledged a branch that came in before herself. 
If she rejected it on the plea of the Line having come off 
before Hereditary Eight was established, she deprived her- 
self of that ground, should it prove to be desirable to 
advance it. 

The civil war enabled her, through the animosity of the 
parties, to put aside at once those inconvenient discussions 
and a numerous line of claimants. The powers of Europe 
were, however, not under the influence of local passions, and 
whatever the part taken by the Augustenburgs in the civil 
war, no judicial steps have been taken to deprive them of 
their rights. The shield of the Duke of Augustenburg is 
suspended amongst those of the other Knights Commanders 
of theDanish Order of the Elephant. 



208 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Diet of Copenhagen and the Danish 
Constitution. 

The resistance of the Danish Diet, which has already led 
to three Dissolutions of that Body, was not made to the 
Treaty, but arose entirely out of the manner in which the 
measure was presented to it. 

The Diet itself was Provisional and Provincial; the 
Duchies were not represented. On the 28th of the pre- 
vious January, a Royal Proclamation had promised the Insti- 
tution of a General Diet: there was no reason why this 
promise should not have been fulfilled, and every reason for 
fulfilling it before submitting a fundamental matter which 
as every one felt could not be settled in a partial assembly. 
The Constitution required that no change in the succession 
should be adopted except by three -fourths of the votes ; the 
Body which had to vote required to have existence. This 
objection was put forward as a preliminary one. 

It may have been very unwise to force so grave matter in 
so indecorous a manner, but from this fact alone, a sinister 
purpose need not be inferred. If the Danish Government 
had no other object than the adhesion of the Diet to the 
Treaty, it could have floated over the preliminaiy objection 
by rendering the measure in other respects acceptable. It, 
however, treated this Constitutional body harshly and insult- 
ingly ; told it that no advice would be accepted at its hands; 
informed it that the measure to which its assent by anticipa- 
tion was required, should not even be presented to it ; * and 

* "Although the communications which the Government has 
made to us allow us no ground to hope that the act will be presented 
for the adoption of the Diet, &c." — Report, p. 61. 



DIET OF COPENHAGEN. 



239 



that it was required to utter a simple " Yes/' or a simple 
" No" to the Royal message,* which Koyal message in ex- 
press terms abolished Hereditary Eight ! 

We have not to seek far for the object in view. A Con- 
stitution was very necessary for Eussia in Denmark, generally 
for the creation of faction, and immediately for giving an 
apparently national sanction to the Treaty : but it was not 
desirable that that Constitution should have or acquire, 
vigour, or that a sense of independence, or a consciousness of 
power should arise amongst the people. Here was an oppor- 
tunity of crushing that Constitution by the weight of Europe. 
The objects of the Danish Government, though distinct, 
coincide ; they could not fail to profit by the occasion 
thus afforded them, of bringing into coincidence the dis- 
positions of the Diet with the will of the Cabinet. In 
fact the Cabinet was absolute from the moment, it would say 
" unless you answer by an unconditional c Yes,' we dissolve, 
and will go on dissolving till you have said it." It is Eng- 
land whose influence is called into action in this matter ; and 
it is exerted in reference to a measure, into which the British 
Parliament has never inquired, and respecting which it has 
received neither documents nor explanation. 

The first Dissolution took place, nominally indeed, in con- 
sequence of the failure of another measure which the govern- 
ment might have easily carried. This was a bill for the exten- 
sion of the Custom Lines, so as to include Hoist ein, to which 
the Diet objected solely because the Duchies were not repre- 
sented; the government was beaten on some details in the 
Lower House by three, and the Upper was known to be 

t " That if the male issue of King Frederic III should fail, all 
"hereditary right according to the articles 27 — 40 of the said royal 
law shall be abolished, and the succession for all the territories which 
are now united under the Danish crown be transferred on the head 
of His Highness Prince Christian, in this way that His isseue, mal 
after male, of lawful marriage, shall succeed to the crown in accor- 
dance with the law of primogeniture, and the Agnatic lineal succes- 
sion ." — Eoyal Message, Uh Oct., 1852. 



270 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



favourable, but it was never submitted to them. By means 
of a conference the trifling objections of the Lower House 
would have been removed. 

The new Diet was elected with a view to the message, and 
the government was favoured in an extraordinary manner by 
an internal schism. Denmark has long been distracted by an 
agitation which may be rendered intelligible to the reader by 
the term ' * Tenant-Eight," although it more properly belongs 
to the class of dissensions which formerly afflicted Gallicia 
and Hungary, and still afflict TTallachia and Moldavia. The 
popular party had the command of the Lower House, and 
having been the most violent in the war, it was now most 
zealous for the Eoyal message. 

The new Diet which met in March, 1853, was, neverthe- 
less, prepared for resistance, and surrender was imperiously 
required by the government in the name of a " European 
necessity,"* and they were unambiguously threatened in case 
of contumacy, with the withdrawal of a Constitution which 
they were so little qualified to possess ; lest such menaces, 
should be mistaken for the mere desires of a faction, or 
associated with the purposes of Russia, the Times lent the 
willing aid of its thunders to batter unhappy Denmark in 
the name of constitutional freedom and the enlightened 
opinion of the British people. t 

The previous Diet had appointed a Commission of twenty- 

* " At the opening of the Eeichstag, at Copenhagen, the Prime 
Minister read the Eoyal Address of the 4th October last, respecting 
the regulation of the Succession. As the Ministry presumed that the 
proposed succession was the right one, it would not admit of any 
alteration, as that would appear as if the King intended to break the 
engagements he had contracted with the Great Powers. To show to 
the Diet the opinion of Foreign Cabinets of the former discussions, 
he would lay all the correspondence on the unconditional approval of 
the motion was a European Necessity." — Altona Mercury. 

f For instance, on the 12th of February the Times, after speaking 
of the Danish Constitution as one of the satisfactory results of 1848, 
says : — - 

"But it is not less essential to the maintenance and success of these 



DIET OP COPENHAGEN. 



271 



five members to examine the small pamphlet of forty pages, 
which is all that was considered necessary for their en- 
lightenment, and which has not even been presented to the 
English Parliament. That Commission drew up three separate 
Reports : the first two signed by sixteen members was un- 
favourable to the absolute " Yes." All accepted with joy the 
nomination of the Duke of Gliicksburg. Opposition took 
their chief stand upon the Lex Regia abolished by the message, 
and presented the singular anomaly of opposing the Crown 
by means of a charter of unlimited despotic power. But the 
most remarkable part of the story is, that they appeal to the 
Treaty against the Message ! 

These opinions were reechoed in the Xew Diet, and the 
government measure was opposed by forty-five to ninety-seven 
votes, which, as three-fourths was required, was its rejection, 
On this the Diet was again dissolved. 

Having been present at the election of the next one, I can 
speak from personal observation. The prevailing sense was 
that of fatigue, the intimate conviction that of helplessness. 
" In God's name let the matter be settled such was the 
expression on every one's lip. In Copenhagen there were out 
of nine districts but two contests, and one of these was a 
mere personal competition. In those districts where there 
was a contest but a small number of the electors voted : 

institutions that the elective Assembly should pursue a rational and 
practical course with reference to the important questions which have 
recently occupied not only the Danish Cabinet, but the great powers 
of Europe ; and nothing is more calculated to weaken the due au- 
thority of the representatives of the nation than a disposition to 
sacrifice the public engagements and common interests of the monarchy 
to a spirit of narrow and exclusive party feeling. "We have taken so 
much interest in the gallant struggle of the Danes against the party 
winch sought to effect the dissolution of the monarchy, and in the 
establishment of those liberal institutions in Denmark which no 
people is better qualified to enjoy, that we hope the observations we 
may venture to make on this Parliamentary crisis in then 1 affairs will 
be favourably received before the country proceeds to the business of 
the elections on the2Qth of February" 



272 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



it was a matter of surprise that one opposition member was 
returned. Such being the state of the capital, judge of 
the provinces. Not a single landed proprietor was returned 
for the Lower House. The rancour of the Tenant-Right 
question combining with the rage for the Gliicksburg suc- 
cession, excluded the distinguished men who had figured in 
the former Diets, and not one of the liberal members who had 
voted against the government was re-elected. 

It is different with respect to the other House. It is also 
elected, but indirectly, that is to say, by electoral colleges, as 
in France. In this body the proprietors are represented, and 
consequently the two bodies are balanced against each other, 
or will be so upon the Tenant-Eight question, where each will 
vote separately, while on that of succession, the two being 
united, the opposition of the Upper House will be over- 
powered. Thus then whilst the process of rapid and reiterated 
dissolution is employed to coerce the Diet into a concurrence 
of will with the ministry, the forms of a constitutional assent 
are obtained to a measure extorted by violence ; and the 
authority of the powers of Europe is employed to effect 
a violence not contemplated in the act by which it has been 
produced. 

Had the Government still been despotic, commiseration 
might have been awakened ; but now, when in consequence 
of this act, Denmark comes to be used against England, she 
will no longer be looked upon as a suffering victim but 
treated as a willing instrument, and we will proceed as here- 
tofore to complete her subjection, by partition, if need be, or 
by bombardment. 

Denmark had a beneficent Despotism, that has disap- 
peared ; she was gratified with a liberal Constitution, that 
is trodden down ; she had an established Succession, that 
is broken up : by the blood she has spilt in a civil broil fifty 
millions of dollars have been added to her debt. Such are 
the results of Constitutional Diplomacy ! 

If the past conduct of the Diet did encourage abroad the 
hope that by its means the errors of the London Treaty 



DIET OF COPENHAGEN, 



273 



might be repaired, that hope is now extinguished : if the 
matter is now to be taken up, it can only be by England 
herself. There is now no possibility of mistake on any 
point ; the statement of the case, which appeared so incre- 
dible when first made, is now re-echoed from every quarter. * 

* " Lord Clarendon's declaration in the Upper House is here [Ber- 
lin] declared to be utterly false. He stated that 'the Emperor of Russia 
had acceded to the London Treaty settling the Danish Succession 
without bringing forward the slightest undue pretension.' The state 
of the case is exactly the reverse of what Lord Clarendon stated. By 
the London, as well as by the "Warsaw Protocol, the whole of the 
Danish dominions are menaced with falling under the Russian 
sceptre. Germany may look forward to see Russia a member of 
the German Confederation in respect to the Duchies of Holstein and 
Lauenburg. It is wonderful how people can shut their eyes to 
anything so evident." — Aacliener Zeitung^ June 24th. 

So much for Berlin : now for Vienna : — 

" 1S0 man can shut his eyes to the tendency of the reigning House 
of Russia to introduce itself into the Germanic Confederation in its 
quality of Sovereign of the Duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg, over 
which it pretends that it will have to exercise power after the death 
of Prince Christian of Ghicksburg. The clanger for the future fortune 
of Prussia is consequently imminent, and that is the reason why the 
Cabinet of Berlin would be most unwise to remain neutral in the 
Eastern question." (I) — Wanderer of Vienna, 24th June. 
The Allgeraeine Zeitv.ng, June 23d, has the following : — 
" There appears to be a settled resolution at Copenhagen to 
despatch all the pending questions as rapidly and sine strepitu as 
possible. The royal message has indeed been read for the first time 
at the second meeting, in spite of the opposition of Lindberg. The 
former prime minister, A. W. Moltke, has actually adopted the 
motion formerly brought in by Oersted. But there is considerable 
scruple as to its effect ; hence in fact that motion will not settle any- 
thing, for the Danish Diet is but a provincial diet ; it cannot resolye 
for Schleswig, nor for Holstein either, and the Succession will not 
be settled for the collective Monarchy any more than for the 
Duchies. The Treaty of the 8th of May will step in with all its 
difficulties and embarrassments. There is in fact no doubt that 
England has of late attended very seriously to the Sound, and 
although David Urquhart is not properly to be considered as an 
agent of the Administration, yet you may rely upon his being the 
representative of no inconsiderable share of public opinion on the 

12 § 



274 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



The Danish nation has just spirit enough left to pretend 
to assume as its own will, the violence it suffers, and thus 
loses the only chance of that support on which in their hearts 
they yet rely. " Surely England will at last see to what she 
is bringing us," said one of the leading men in a conver- 
sation which had commenced with the stout assertion that 
the Treaty was an excellent measure and calculated to heal 
the wounds of Denmark. The answer to this melancholy 
avowal and pitiable appeal, could only be : " England acted 
when she was ignorant : now she is informed, but committed ; 
three Administrations and five Foreign secretaries are partners 
in the deed." The Danes too are committed. Terrible word 
is that " committed " — dead lock of a political mechanism, 
possessed of functions and destitute of ends. 

other side of the German Ocean. The new English minister, 
Mr. Buchanan, arrived at Copenhagen on the 15th inst., and he 
is understood to have very decided instructions. An English 
squadron is expected in the Baltic. In consequence of all this, 
Count Charles Moltke is said to entertain a desire of resigning as 
minister for Schleswig. It is supposed, and no doubt the supposi- 
tion is founded in fact, that the measures which for upwards of a 
year have been showered down upon the Duchies, and the almost 
desperate complaints which are echoed back to the capital will only 
tend to embitter and to alienate the minds, and will necessitate the 
Government to fall back upon Eussia. The late prime minister, all 
but in plain words, proclaimed this dependence upon Russia, in ln.3 
place in the Diet." 



275 



CHAPTER VII. 

The position of Austria in the North and in the 
South, as affected by the Treaty of the Sth 
of May. 

Austria, above half a century ago, exchanged the Nether- 
lands for a position on the Adriatic ; from the North, where 
the increasing consistency of an Extrinsic Power closed the 
door to ambition, she turned to the South and East, hoping 
to reap in the expected dissolution of a great Empire a har- 
vest of maritime power and military strength. 

Her retreat from the North has enabled Eussia to extend 
over Germany a controlling influence, and her advance on 
the South has brought her into collision with Turkey, now 
perceived to be possessed of great and increasing strength. 

Placed by an internal distribution of a few Turkish soldiers 
at the mouth of the Cattaro, under the necessity of having 
to struggle to gain back, through external and compro- 
mising aid, the cession made to her formerly by Prance, she 
has discovered that the Ottoman Empire, instead of an in- 
heritance to be divided, affords the basis on which to con- 
struct a system of defensive policy for the future. 

The events of Poland, those more recent and alarming 
of Hungary, the usurpation of the Danube, and the habit of 
subverting Governments introduced amongst the Nations 
of the West, present so many additional reasons for seeking 
to escape from the control of her ally, and for looking in 
Turkey for friendship which will afford real support upon 
honourable conditions. 

In a word, aggrandisement must be abandoned abroad, and 



276 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



the doctrine of uniformity surrendered at home. Nor is this 
idea unfamiliar to the Austrian Cabinet. Prince Swartzenbur^ 
has told Germany that she "has nothing to fear from 
the strength of Austria, but much to apprehend from her 
weakness." Austria is only weak because her own subjects 
dread her doctrine of uniformity, and her neighbours her 
designs of aggrandisement. 

The Treaty of the 8th of May, 1852, for the Danish 
Succession, has now recast the relations of the Powers of 
Europe, by the prospective union of that Crown with the 
Crown of Eussia, and indeed the fact of having used the 
Powers of Europe for effecting this arrangement, gives her a 
present ascendancy not far removed from possession. It is 
important, therefore, for Austria to consider, before it is too 
late, the consequences to herself of this change. 

Like the Dardanelles, the aggressive Tower of the Sound, 
from its possession by a weak or inoffensive State, has re- 
mained latent : we have to look at that position now no 
less in its offensive than its defensive character. 

The Russian frontiers springing across Prussia will be 
brought to the West of Berlin and Vienna, to within 400 
miles of Paris, and two days by steam to the Thames. 
To these frontiers she will be able, by steam, to transfer in 
a couple of days, regiments and armies, which a few hours 
can bring by rail to Berlin, and a couple of days over the 
whole of Germany. 

Possessing the Sound, the entrance of the Baltic will be 
practically and diplomatically closed. Her navy will then 
possess an internal Sea where it will be unattackable, and 
whence it may issue at pleasure. 

This revolution touches Austria in the most sensitive 
point. Her reliance against Prance was on the maritime 
power of Britain : held in check, as England will now be, 
that security is withdrawn. 

The conversion of the Baltic into a close Sea affects almost 
as immediately Stockholm as Copenhagen itself. Holding 
Denmark and the Baltic, she has in fact virtually incorporated 



AUSTBIA, 



277 



the Northern as well as the Southern Scandinavian Peninsula, 
and the North, in a block, falls into her hands. 

It is not merely Denmark which she is to acquire, but also 
the Duchies of Sclileswig and Holstein, which, even if Den- 
mark had been singly inherited, might have afforded a check 
upon her: the Treaty, declaring those to be inseparably 
united, places the whole in her hands. 

The Duchies, not Denmark, give her the Eyder, the mouths 
of the Elbe, and the position of Eensburg ; in a word, the 
hold over the commerce of Germany by its main river arteries, 
and over the will of Germany by access to the railways, for 
the transfer of her troops. 

It will be evident, that what may remain of independence 
in Prussia w T ill now vanish, and that that government can be 
no more than a Subsidiary Office wearing the deceptive mask 
of a distinct existence. 

If, then, Austria had prior and independent reasons for a 
change in her policy, there is every reason not to delay its 
adoption until the accomplishment of the Treaty of the 
8th of May deprives her of all power of giving to that 
change effect ; in that case the object to be attempted, 
and one presenting no great difficulty in its realization if 
undertaken at once, is the breaking of the Treaty. One 
generous word uttered to the Porte secures her in the rear ; 
one well-adapted phrase gives her Germany, and then she 
can meet the common enemy on a favourable field ; an able 
and incorruptible envoy in London brings at once the fall of 
the Treaty, and the co-operation of a secured and strengthened 
England. Unless Austria possess such a man, the attempt is 
of course impracticable. 

If not, Austria and Turkey will mutually be involved in 
projects of dismemberment, and the one used to pull down 
the other. To them will be applied the injunction of the will 
of Peter in regard to Austria and Prance, namely, the in- 
spiring of each with the design of universal dominion, by 
which such an amount of hatred shall be engendered between 
them as must finally destroy them. 



278 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



For the adoption or prosecution of any defensive measures 
against Eussia, the basis must be the knowledge of the East, 
at least in regard to the following points : — 

1. The inherent vitality of Turkey. 

2. Facility of co-operation in this sense with the Turkish 
government. 

3. Its inassailability by the Military Poicer of Russia. 

4. The elements of convulsion throughout the South of 
Eussia to be of necessity used by Austria or against her. 

5. The facility of the extinction of Russia's aggressive 
powers by the emancipation of the export trade of Turkey and 
the Danube. 

The effect of the concentration of the power and thoughts 
of Europe on the South is at once to expose the North to 
Eussia, and to break down the Ottoman Empire by convert- 
ing it into a field and object of contention — effects strikingly 
illustrated at the present moment when squadrons of England 
and of France are sailing to the Levant about the Parish 
Church of Jerusalem, and the governments of London and 
Paris are actively engaged in their despatches in procuring 
for Eussia the Sound. 

Whether by accident or design, the displacement which 
has occurred in respect to Austria finds its parallel in the 
other States. Prussia has extended a preparatory and 
vicarious dominion over the South of Germany, and appears 
hand in hand with England in Syria, furthering a scheme of 
religious propagandism. 

England, who in 1800 drove France out of Egypt and 
restored it to the Porte, is now casting on it an eye of 
cupidity, and turning one of jealousy on France. She is also 
herself become a proprietor in the Levant by the acquisition 
of Malta and the Ionian Islands. 

France has forgotten her fervour for the frontier of the 
Ehine in her African dominion, her Egyptian schemes, and 
her projects of religious supremacy ; whilst, by the acquisition 
of a Piratical State of Barbary, she has become the Algiers of 
Europe. 



AU8TEIA. 



279 



In the course of this great and universal propulsion 
towards the South, the character of Europe has been 
changed ; in this resides, more than in any special diplo- 
matic transactions or territorial acquisitions, the present 
security and the future hopes of Eussia. Whenever in any 
Cabinet there arises a man equal to cope with her, to this 
first of all will his attention be given. Eevolution comes 
from the disorder of the judgment of nations : they misjudge 
when governments have mismanaged. Mismanagement re- 
solves itself into injustice, and so justice has a restoring no 
less than a preserving power. 



280 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Baltic and the Euxine — TJie Sound Dues. 

A Strait which brings the power of the land to control 
the navigation of the seas is not only interesting as a geo- 
graphical and political, but, also, as an intellectual, matter : 
it fixes the attention, excites curiosity, awakens activity, 
suggests apprehension, and, finally, prompts designs, and 
thus calls into existence faculties of the mind seldom appre- 
ciated, even in those very transactions of which it is the 
spring. 

The traffic of thirty millions of souls passes through the 
Sound ; it is conveyed in some twenty thousand vessels ; 
that traffic consists of grain, timber, spars, hemp, and iron : 
the holder of these Straits has, therefore, a power over, at 
once, the material existence and the military operations of 
the rest of Europe. But this exportation affects the internal 
prosperity of the countries from which it is derived. 

Supposing Denmark to be a Power with substantive 
strength, she might thus exercise dominating influence, alike 
over the countries without the Baltic and those within • the 
operations of war, in Europe, would depend upon her will ; 
and the prosperity of Eussia would at all times be at her 
mercy. Denmark, however, is unconscious that she pos- 
sesses such power ; whilst Russia looks upon her, at once, 
with dread, for she may ally herself with stronger States, 
and with cupidity, because she may converted into an instru- 
ment against them. 

It is not, however, one enclosed sea with a narrow outlet 
which Russia has had to study, nor one circle of countries 
which are dependent on her conclusions ; as the Xorth may 
be said to have its Dardanelles, there is in the South a Baltic 



THE BALTIC AND THE EUXINE. 281 



and a Sound ; there, also, is a vast internal sea, whence issue 
grain, timber, and hemp ; there, also, are foreign batteries 
commanding the outlets of her trade and the commerce, of 
surrounding countries. 

Little more than a hundred years ago, Eussia had no pos- 
sessions on either sea ; she has simultaneously spread herself 
over both, making them the passage of a new-born trade, 
and the experimental fields of a suddenly- created navy : as 
she expands she stands in the centre, containing within her 
own breast the completeness of knowledge and of system ; 
whilst her antagonists, severally destitute of both, have been 
alike incapable of separate resistance, or concerted action. 

In two nations of the world political vitality is concentrated 
in the capital ; those two capitals are exposed to bombard- 
ment from a fleet ; both are placed on the inner side of 
narrow and defensible Straits ; both are exposed from 
within to a superior Eussian naval force; the maritime 
power of both has been destroyed by England ; and Eussia 
has constructed a powerful arsenal and fortress, which from 
an equal distance permanently menaces both — Cronstadt for 
Copenhagen, Sevastapol for Constantinople. 

Adjoining both Straits there are two provinces united to 
the Crown of their respective countries, severally acquired by 
compact not conquest, and having equally remained so for 
four hundred years. Eussia, at the beginning of the last 
century, commenced the invasion of the provinces of the 
Danube, and united to her own House a Pretender, from 
whom she has derived claims on the Duchies of the Baltic. 
In the recent convulsions of 1848, a revolution for the first 
time occurred in the one and in the other: she used the 
pretext of that upon the Danube to send forward the troops 
for the war in Hungary : on its conclusion, troops were 
despatched from Hungary finally to settle her hereditary 
pretensions on the Duchies of the Baltic. The similarity of 
geographical structure* has thus led to identity of political 

* The word " Belt" is supposed to be derived from the general 
name of "Baltic," a word probably of Tartarian origin, being the 



282 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



action, and at last the operations on the two fields have been 
concerted i so soon as a stealthy Treaty has given to her the 
Sound, she advances her armies on the Danube, and covers 
the triumph by a feint on the Ottoman Empire. This con- 
cert is, however, on her side alone : the sight of her antago- 
nists is bounded each by his own horizon — on it neither tees 
what is to be done with him, — what she is accomplishing on 
earth, they attribute to the stars. 

In 1849, she appeared to be in absolute and final posses- 
sion of the Principalities. A treaty was signed on the first 
of May of that year, for the prolongation of their occupation 
for seven years ; no one doubted that they were occupied for 
ever. She had notwithstanding shortly afterwards to retire 
on a demand from the Porte for their evacuation, made in 
consequence of the expedition of the Hungarian and Austrian 
troops to the Baltic. It was at the time supposed that <f the 
feint on the Bosphorus was only to secure the Sound ;' v * 
but her failure on the one point arose out of a temporary 
coolness, which interrupted confidential relations with the 
English Embassy, and allowed for once Turkey to act for 
herself. 

There is one difference between the two outlets : for trade 
that of the Dardanelles is tree, that of the Sound is not. The 
first strait lies between Turkish territory on both sides ; 
the other between those of Denmark and Sweden. The 
Black Sea formerly was a Turkish LaJce ;f the Baltic has ever 

ancient name of Little Thibet, and signifying also in Turkish, hatchet. 
It is singular that the Bight of the Bosphorus vdiere Europe and 
Asia nearest approach, is also termed Ba Ha Lhnan. 

* Words of General Aupich, the French Ambassador. 

t It is upon this very plea that men-of-war of foreign nations are 
now excluded from the Euxine. The first was the English Treaty 
of 1809, concluding the war, if it may be so called, which was com- 
menced by an attempt to bombard Constantinople, wherein she 
promised not to do " the like again." In 1S41, the next and last 
step was taken, then England, France, Austria, Prussia, and Buss'y. 
agreed to exclude themselves. 



THE SOUND DUES. 



233 



been occupied by various nations. There might, therefore, 
be grounds for a toll at the Dardanelles, but it is difficult to 
imagine what grounds there can be for one at the Sound. 
Russia forced open the Dardanelles : she maintains the toll 
of the Sound. The time was when she loudly demanded 
the freedom of the Baltic, 

The Kings of Denmark originally exacted these tolls when 
they ruled the three Scandinavian kingdoms, and when, 
consequently, they occupied both sides of the Sound and the 
larger portion of the Baltic. On the separation of Sweden, 
the Southern extremity of the Scandinavian Peninsula still 
remained to Denmark, and was not lost till 1645, or defi- 
nitively till 1657. During this period the Dues had been 
a subject of constant dissension with Sweden, and in the 
latter year they were abandoned by Treaty, though afterwards 
reimposed. The Kings of Denmark, however, did not 
retain them by their own strength, nor receive them for 
their own benefit; they were but the tax-gatherers of the 
Hanseatic League, whose object indeed was rather to ex- 
clude foreign trade than to tax it, and they instituted a 
Navigation Law for the Baltic which was afterwards copied by 
Cromwell. 

"When Scania was surrendered, the narrow passage of the 
Kattegat was brought under Swedish jurisdiction no less than 
Danish ; the breadth is but three miles, and the waters were 
consequently neutral, nor could the mere passage along the 
coast of a country justify any exaction. It was clear piracy ; 
not more cloaked, but far more regular, than that of the 
Barbary States. Nor was there ever power to enforce it, for 
the batteries were weak, and vessels could pass on the Swedish 
side. 

The power of the Hanseatic towns had fallen j Denmark 
was thus left singlehanded to maintain her pretensions, which 
placed her in a false position with all her neighbours, and 
involved her in continual wars. Thus has been entailed on her 
the debt, by the interest of which the toll itself is actually 
absorbed. 



234 



THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



It was to emancipate Eussian trade that Peter the Great 
espoused the cause of the Duke of Holstein, and commenced 
a system of exhausting Denmark by preparatives against a 
constantly impending attack. This policy slumbered for a 
while in consequence of the internal dissensions of the 
Eussian family until the reign of Catherine, when Denmark 
had so fallen that Eussia's purposes were reversed. The 
demand was still pressed, to afford by its withdrawal, as in 
the case of the Holstein claims, the opportunity of imposing 
new obligations. 

The negotiation to which I refer is not indeed to be found in 
any history, nor are the documents inserted in any diplomatic 
collection. It occured at the close of 1766, at St. Petersburg. 
The Danish Government was at the time in the greatest 
alarm respecting the Holstein claims, which were adjusted 
only a few months later. It could refuse Eussia nothing. 
It threw itself on her mercy, avowing that one half of the 
revenue of the state depended upon the non-pressing of the 
demand, which it did not resist. It represented that the re- 
mission of the Dues to Eussian vessels must entail remission 
for the vessels of all other Powers, and that it would be 
utterly impracticable to devise any effectual means of conceal- 
ment ;* but, continues the Danish minister, if the Eussian 
Government will concede this point, there is nothing which 
Denmark will fail to do " to render, in as far as it is permit- 
ted andpossiblefor humanity, that union indissoluble to which, 
this point excepted, everything else invites, and nothing 
opposes." Catherine graciously yields to Denmark's neces- 
sities and entreaties, and replies " that the King of Denmark 
cannot do better than attach himself to Eussia as an ally, 
who will exact nothing from him, and can and will do every- 
thing for him." 

The matter did not rest here : again we have Secret Arti- 
cles, six in number ; with one alone we are acquainted ; it 

* In two notes, one confidential and one public, of the 6th of 
September, 1766 : see Memoirs of Baron Assebnrg, Danish Repre- 
sentative at St. Petersburg. 



THE SOUND DUES. 



285 



refers to Prussian Navigation, and in it the "indissoluble 
union 5 ' is denned as one which is " to subsist in all time to 
conie, in every case and circumstance, without any depend- 
ence whatever on alliances, defensive and occasional, tempo- 
rary or permanent, or any Treaties whatever, whether with 
Eussia herself, or with other Powers." * 

At the Congress of Vienna the States of Europe estab- 
lished the most perfect freedom of navigation for rivers 
passing through different territories, providing that no 
regulations should be made by any one save with the con- 
currence of all the rest. The Sound, however, was left 
shackled ; the reason assigned was, that some compensation 
was required for the wrongs which Denmark had suffered ! 
When in March 1848, the Prussian troops were about to 
invade the Duchies, one of the incentives administered to the 
popular enthusiasm, was the shame of submission to the 
Sound Dues ; this aspiration met the same fate as all the 
other professed objects of Prussia. 

But the Sound is not the only access to the Baltic. The 
Peninsula which stretches to form this passage in the South 
is low and narrow at its base, traversed by a river nearly 
from sea to sea. The Peninsula which advances from the 
North affords like facilities for internal navigation, by a suc- 
cession of lakes, irregular, but almost connected between 
Gottenberg and Stockholm. Either of those passages lay at 
a more direct route for the commerce of the Baltic and St. 
Petersburg than the Sound, which involved a lengthened and 
devious navigation, first stretching to the North and then to 
the South. Without reference to political objects, and 
merely with a view to expedite communication, it was most 
desirable to open one or other of those passages, or both ; 
that of the Eyder shortening the distance to the coasts of 
Prussia and to the Bothniau Gulf by nearly four hundred 
miles, and that through Sweden, shortening the distance to 
he North and the Gulf of Einland by about three hundred. 

* For Treaties bearing on the Sound Dues, see Collection of 
Hauterive and Cussy. 



286 THE DANISH SUCCESSION. 



These enterprises were further prompted by local interests, 
and in fact a canal has been cut through both ; but those 
canals are not large enough for sea -going vessels. The in- 
terests of Denmark suffice to explain the limited dimensions 
of that of the Eyder, but it is the interests of Etissia which 
alone can explain the parallel restriction of that of Gotha.* 
It is, however, the canal of the Eyder which is of im- 
portance, and in case of the separation of the Duchies 
from Denmark, it is natural to expect that it should be en- 
larged; in fact, the inducements would be too strong to be 
resisted. In this competition not only would the Commerce 
of the world be relieved from the Sound Dues, but the navi- 
gation of the Baltic would be facilitated to an extent exceeding 
even the remission of those Dues. This chance is now 
closed, by the " Integrity 55 article of the Treaty of the 8th of 
May, and Denmark is placed in the doubly invidious position 
of preventing the opening of one passage that she may levy 
a contribution at another. 

We have now, however, to consider the matter no longer 
as Danish, but as Eussian. Will the Government which has 
blocked up the Danube, and actually exacts in its own 
Consulates of London and Liverpool duties amounting almost 
to a prohibition on the few vessels that leave these ports for 
that river, deal differently with the Eyder, the Gotha Canal, 
the Sound, the Elbe, and the Weser ? Shall we allow the 
occasion to pass by of resisting an impost soon to be paid 
directly into the Eussian Exchequer ? We are, indeed, bound 
by treaty, and so are the other Governments of Europe, but 
there is one government which is not ; the United States 
are under no obligation to pay an impost wholly lawless, and 
by resisting it would place a fulcrum in the very centre of the 

# A Company has just been instituted to build small vessels for the 
Baltic Trade, to pass through the Grotha Canal. It will be seen in 
the chapter on the Canal of the Danube, that I had already proposed 
the same plan for the navigation of the Black Sea. 



THE SOUND DUES. 



287 



interests which agitate the Old World, where it is so ambitious 
of exercising an influence. * 

The suggestion alone, it will be said, suffices to throw Den- 
mark absolutely into Russia's hands, for what is she to do if 
half of her revenue is withdrawn, now that her debt by the 
recent war has been doubled ? I answer, can her position be 
worse than it is. Is it not now essential to throw upon 
Eussia the burden of her support ? By the act of her Diet, 
Denmark has now assumed upon her own head the respon- 
sibility of her own degradation ; it is the consequence of the 
exercise of a hollow Constitutional Power. Not a man has 
raised his voice to protect against a foreign Treaty disposing 
of the Succession, or against this fiction of a Constitution. 
Shall a degraded nation fare differently from a degraded 
man? Virtue has its rewards even in this world, although 
these may often consist in its very trials. 

It is not on me that reproach can lie for the suggestion, 
or it is now ten years since I have earnestly laboured to 
awaken the Danes to a sense of the coming evil ; that I have 
spared no toil, there are those who can testify, who them- 
selves at the time concurred with me in apprehensions, and 
in the means for averting their realisation. Those very men, 
since raised by the confidence of their King and their 
country to the highest posts, have become servile instruments 
for the deception of the one, and the betrayal of the other. 
In fact there is not a politician in Denmark that does not 
inspire pity as a man, and contempt as a functionary. 

It is well that Denmark should learn without delay the 
penalties of her present course ; she can never be gratified 
like Poland, or Circassia if prostrated, like Turkey or Persia 
if deprived of their own independence, with the prospect of 
vengeance, or the lust of conquest ; she will be placed simply 
between the upper and the nether millstone. 

* An American frigate has recently entered that Black Sea from 
which England holds herself excluded. 



THE SOUTH, 



Part I.— THE DANUBE AND THE EUXINE. 

Part IL— THE COMMERCE OE THE 
LEVANT AND THE RED SEA. 



" / offer you the half of Europe, I will help you to obtain 
it, secure you in the possession of it, and all I ask in return 
is the possession of a single Strait, which is also the key of 
my House." — Alexander to Napoleon. 



13 



PART I. 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Commerce of Europe and Asia. 



" Peter had long meditated the project of the occupation of the 
Caspian, thus to draw the commerce of Asia and a part of India 
within his dominions." — Toltaike. 



While so many lives are risked to find out the sources of 
the Niger, and the currents of the Pole, what discoveries in 
the centre of Europe await the enterprising navigator in his 
library chair ! The course of the Danube is indeed laid 
down upon our maps ; the volume of its waters, and their 
velocity minutely determined on our statistical tables \ but 
mystery, deeper than Colchian darkness, envelopes the hidden 
sources of its fictitious nullity, and the frigifying processes 
of its Arctic obstructions. 

The paramount importance of the freedom of the Darda- 
nelles and the Bosphorus to the well-being of the people, 
and the independence of the nations, of Europe, none will 
deny. The Black Sea linking these to the Danube, and that 
river joined by railway to the Rhine, we have a system 
of communication by internal waters, which armies can 
span and batteries close, capable of realising the old 
maxim of Neptune's lordship of the land. That ancient 
supremacy rested upon the joining of rafters and the man- 



292 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



ning of ships I this was no commonplace or practical 
affair ; the element itself was to be created. The Danube 
pursued its tranquil course through the picturesque Teutonic 
valleys, the vast plains of the descendants of the Avars, and the 
teeming granaries, the inheritance of the Dacians ; the Euxine 
nestled in the bosom of the Othmanic King;* the Bosphorus 
nnd Dardanelles bisected his states. These water courses, dis- 
persed to many nations, were clung to by each, and all had 
to surrender up their patrimonies before this unity could 
appear. It was not by any of the partners that this new 
edifice was planned; a stranger conceived it; possessed 
herself of the ground for its erection ; has gone on from 
foundation to parapet, from story to story, buttress to 
buttress ; the covering in is all that is now wanting to this 
creation of enchantment, surrounded, as it has risen, by that 
cloud of invisibility which conducted Eneas into the Tyrian 
citadel ; here has been surpassed the invention of the 
bards of Etruria and Samos, and by illusion the means have 
been found of acquiring such command of the will of the 
world as they have achieved of its admiration. 

At the time that this project was first formed the frontiers 
of Russia on the west were restrained behind the Dnieper, 
and on the east fell far short of the Caucasus ; she had no 
port whatever, or outlet, upon the Black Sea, and touched the 
Caspian only by uninhabited wastes. Yet the first basis of 
operations required that she should be in possession of the 
Danubian provinces and of the control of that river ; that 
she should be in possession of the trans- Caucasian provinces, 
and have the control of the Araxes ; also that rival flags 
should be excluded from the Caspian and the Euxine. 

The sudden expansion of Russian power under Peter the 
Great does not require repetition. Sir John M'Neill has 
traced it with a masterly hand, and after referring to the 
disaster on the Pruth, and the recovery of Persia under Nadir 
Shah, he concludes his sketch in these words : " The 



* " PopuliiHi late regem." 



COMMERCE OF EUEOPE AND ASIA. 293 



projects of Russia were thus for a time abandoned to be 
renewed at a later period with better success. " The events 
of that later period I now propose to trace in respect to the 
Danube and the coast of Circassia, referring the curious 
reader to the above-mentioned author for the various histories 
of her advances in Georgia and Persia, and her establishment 
on the southern banks of the Phasis, the Cp'us, and the 
Araxes. 

In 1812, Turkey had the opportunity of recovering all the 
ground she had lost ; but England, who only thought of the 
war with France, induced her to sign the treaty of Bucharest ; 
by it Eussia got possession of nearly a half of Moldavia, 
and reached the Pruth. 

Her advance eastward alarmed England, who, on that 
side, concluded with her neighbour a defensive treaty. 
Nevertheless, under the mediation of England, she extorted 
in 1814, from Persia, the exclusive navigation of the Caspian, 
and overstepped, despite her own and England's pledge, the 
Araxes.* Her usurpation of a further district brought the 
war of 1827 ; then England broke the engagement of her 
defensive treaty, left Persia single-handed, and abrogated the 
treaty itself. j Her frontier was again advanced, and the 

* " General EiteschefF — then Governor- General and Commander- 
in-Chief in Georgia, and Plenipotentiary — solemnly pledged himself, 
if the Persian Ambassador would accept it (the basis of uti possidetis), 
to procure from his Court the restitution of Talish, and deliberately 
held out the hope that other provinces also would be restored. The 
British ambassador felt himself justified in confirming the confidence 
of the Persians, and in undertaking that the good offices of his Govern- 
ment should be exerted at the Court of St. Petersburg to procure 
an adjustment of the stipulation respecting the territory, which might 
fulfil not only the positive promises of General EiteschefF, but the 
larger hopes he had held out. 

" The Persians, accustomed to place the most implicit reliance on 
the honour of Europeans, and not ignorant of the liberal assistance 
that England had extended to Eussia in the hour of her humiliation 
and distress, never for a moment doubted, &e." — Progress of Russia, 
p. 64. 

t It applied only in case of Eussia being the aggressor, and that 



294 



THE DANUBE AXD EUXIXE. 



suppression of the Persian flag on the Caspian as, ah antiquo, 
was stipulated in the Treaty of Turkman Chai. 

In 1829, in defiance of solemn engagements to England 
and France not to acquire territory, she did extort, and by 
their aid, from Turkey, the mouth of the Danube. In 1831, 
she established a nominal quarantine on the Caucasian coast 
not in her possession. In 1833, by threatening the lives of 
the Ministers of the Sultan, she obtained the exclusion from 
the Euxine, in time of tear, of foreign men-of-war. In the 
same year, she obtained a -new accession of territory in Asia, 
bringing her frontier within nine miles of the route by which 
English commerce reaches Persia. In 1836, she established 
a quarantine to intercept vessels entering the Danube, and 
arrogated the right of sending them to Odessa to perform 
quarantine. 

In 1838, she found means secretly to frustrate a Treaty 
between England and Turkey, which would have diminished 
the export, and abrogated the transit, duties in the latter 
country. The same year she frustrated a Treaty between 
England, Turkey, and Austria, which would have secured 
and opened the navigation of the Danube. In 1841, by a 
Treaty signed at London, she made all nations exclude their 
men-of-war in peace as well as in war from the Black Sea, 
the Treaty of Hunkiar Skelessi having then lapsed one week. 
In 1844 she frustrated, by bribes, a proposal of Austria to 
open by canal the old mouth of the Danube. In 1849, she 
made Turkey sign a Treaty for the occupation of the Pro- 
vinces during seven years by her troops. In 1850, she 
frustrated the revived project of the Danube Canal. She is 
now endeavouring to impose on the Danubian Principalities 

case is made out in the * Progress of Russia in the East.' The 
authorities there used are official : the author at the time of its pub- 
lication was the designated Envoy to the Shah ; the pamphlet was 
as official as any mere publication could be. Yet on the 1st March, 
1848, Lord Palmerston said : — " Now, what had happened to Persia ? 
In 1827 she had, very foolishly, and thoughtlessly, against advice, 
rushed into a conflict with Russia, &c." 



COMMERCE OF EUROPE AND ASIA. 295 



the English Commercial Treaty, from which they have 
hitherto been exempt, and which must extinguish their 
exportation. 

Several of these steps have been infractions of general law; 
several of positive treaty engagements ; all have been in 
opposition to the avowed interests and declared policy of 
England. The subordinate agents of the British Government 
have been unremitting in efforts meanwhile to thwart and 
expose her, and have been advanced or rewarded for zeal 
displayed in urging that course. 

In one character alone do the systems of England and 
Russia correspond, and that is in extent. There is no point 
where the one has an interest that the other has not an object, 
and defeat or triumph upon any one field, affects the relative 
balance between the two upon every other. In the unit, 
England is vigorous and intelligent; in the mass, passive 
and inert. Russia, individually, is sluggish and incapable ; 
but as a state, active and able. England pursues the 
profits of speculation, and looks no further than trade ; but 
in both cases Russia is exactly the reverse. 

The feelings with which they regard every other country 
are exactly the converse the one to the other. England re- 
joices in the prosperity of all countries which supply raw pro- 
duce ; Russia looks on them with hatred, because with fear; 
wherever there is a land which does produce, or is fitted to 
produce, grain, timber, oil, tallow, hides, or hemp, thither 
England sends her merchants to buy ; Russia her emissaries 
to convulse. The contest, however, will be determined, not 
by their respective interests or power, but according to their 
respective characters. 

Europe contains two great basins, watered by two magni- 
ficent streams, which present in their natures a corresponding 
contrast to that of the two systems. From the mountains of 
Switzerland to the mouths of the Scheldt extends a mecha- 
nical reticulation, identical with that of the manufacturing 
counties of Great Britain. From the reverse of the moun- 
tains which supply the Rhine, down to the mouths of the 



296 THE DANUBE AND EUXIXE. 



Danube and the Black Sea (a vast region of unbounded 
exuberance), there is a total absence of mechanical power. 
This region competes with Russia in the production of the 
sources of her wealth, as the basin of the Ehine does with 
England. It would be in the interests of England to thwart 
the enterprise of the one no less than to call forth the energie s 
of the other ; but neither is in her character. It is in Russia's 
character to do that which her interests require, and while 
turning to account the activity of the one, she has almost 
exterminated the producing power of the other. 

The banks of the Ehine, inhabited by a free people of 
Germans, divided into distinct governments, may appear to 
be little exposed to the action of diplomacy, as far as material 
interests are concerned ; but, in fact, these populations have, 
as regards duties, been united into one system, professedly 
organised with the view of giving strength to Germany 
against foreign aggression ; but the agent of this unity is a 
Government, described by a Eussian diplomatist " as seeking 
to strengthen, with Eussia, the already existing bonds of 
blood by those of policy." Indeed, the "Customs Union" 
:ould not have come into existence if Eussia had thought 
proper to prevent it, which is equivalent to saying that she 
suggested it. A German as distinct from a Saxon, or a 
Prussian trade, is called into existence, and finds itself ham- 
pered on every side ; it is cut off from England, and stopped 
by Eussia; its competition being thus with the first it 
must turn to Eussia ; seeking to propitiate her, it will argue, 
demonstrate, and project ; Eussia will gradually yield to be 
brought to understand, that being unable herself to supply 
the demand of Asia, she may exclude England by favouring 
German exports. Germany, desiring the commercial progress 
of Eussia eastward, becomes associated with her against 
England's political power in the west : the establishment of 
Eussia on the Bosphorus, the Christianising of the Turks 
and the " Japhetising of the Orientals, 55 * will become the 
profound aspiration of the labouring German mind. All this 
* Chevalier Bunsen. 



COMMEECE OE EUEOPE AND ASIA. 297 



was urged on the English Government at the time the 
Zollverein was preparing, when a word from her would have 
sufficed to have frustrated it.* 

Since that period a semi-official work has appeared at a 
German Court under Russian dependence, which so undis- 
guisedly reveals the whole scheme that I hesitate not in 
quoting it : — 

" The Asiatic commerce of Eussia stands both directly and 
indirectly in competition with the intercourse which the 
western countries, including North America, entertain in 
various ways with that quarter of the globe, which surpasses 
all the rest in size, and density of population. The Levantine, 
East Indian, and Chinese trade of the English, North Ame- 
ricans, Erench, and Dutch, has not yet so deeply felt the 
effects of the competition of the Eussian land trade extend- 
ing far into Asia from the frontier walls of the Chinese 
Empire to the Caspian and Black Seas, as it ultimately 
must, from the vastly increasing means of this colossal 
empire. 

"The acquisition, in 1829, of a district of 10,000 square 
miles, inhabited by nomadic tribes, has promoted its con- 
nection with the interior of Asia, and particularly with Buk- 
haria ; and though the British East Indian trade has not 
been much decreased, yet in the opinion of many even the 
position of Eussia threatens the British dominion in that 
quarter. Its speedy destruction is not probable, and the contin- 
gency, when it arises, will spring out of internal disturbance ; 
but it is to be hoped that the active emulation in peaceful 
undertakings of the two Powers will promote progress in the 
East, and that the balance shall preponderate in favour of 
Eussia. 

* See £ The Prussian League,' in the first number of the c British 
and Foreign Eeview.' 

Mr. Poulett Thompson quoted false figures in the House of Com- 
mons to prove that it would be beneficial to British Trade, and 
Lord Pahnerston vouched for its haying no political end. 

13 § 



293 



THE DANUBE AND EUXTNE. 



"England, who turns all Asia into a source of profit, 
supplying, by means of Smyrna, Trebizond, and the Persian 
Gulf, the markets of Asiatic Turkey, Persia, and the neigh- 
bouring countries, now seeks to extend her China trade even 
to the Northern coasts of that Empire, while for the longer 
passage of the Indian Sea she substitutes the Euphrates, 
or a railroad across the Isthmus of Suez. In opposition 
to this, Eussia will not fail to take advantage of every 
facility presented by her position, and the extension of 
her dominion in Asia. But the most effectual means 
is to open a passage to German commerce, so as conjointly 
to reap the harvest of British commerce which contributes 
nothing to the Eussian transit and carrying trade. By 
handing it over to Germany, its own transit and carrying 
trade would be much benefited, and the means are in her 
hands by the navigation of the Danube, in connection with 
Trebizond. 

<c It is clear that to obtain this end, there must take place 
a decrease of mutual duties betiveen Prussia and Russia. Eussia 
will find an equivalent in the produce of its trans-Caucasian 
provinces, particularly silk and cotton ; and in the increasing 
demand for the produce of those countries it will find the 
surest means for a more rapid development of its production 
and its power. The Eussian land trade, will rival the sea 
trade, only in so far as it can offer European goods cheaper 
in the Asiatic market, and the more active the intercourse 
upon the whole line of transport, the more economical will 
be the exchanges. The time is come which invites to this 
concurrent enterprise, and a series of favourable events 
promise rapid results. These are : the extension and the 
strengthening of the Russian dominion on the Black Sea, 
the acquisition of the eastern ports of the same sea, con- 
firmed by the peace of 1829 ; the decided dependence of 
the Persian empire; the exclusive navigation of the Cas- 
pian ; the recently-effected complete subjection of the Cauca- 
sian tribes; and finally the extension of the Eussian domi- 
nion, which within these few years has spread its frontiers 



COMMERCE OF EUEOPE AND ASIA. 299 



eastward from the Caspian, and nearer to the British posses- 
sions in the East Indies, 280 leagues. 

" The re-establishment of that ancient channel of commerce 
through the Black Sea, and in connection with the Danube, 
would give to Europe the important advantage in its inter- 
course with Asia of having entire independence of the Naval 
Powers. Should ever the time again return in which Great 
Britain shall rule the ocean, and enact a maritime law, dic- 
tated by her own exclusive advantage, the Black Sea, at least, 
will be closed to her, and commerce with that division of the 
world will not only remain undisturbed, but furnish us in 
great abundance with all the produce she can offer us herself, 
or prevent us by a blockade from procuring. We need but 
call to remembrance the years 1808-1812, particularly with 
respect to cotton, to perceive the full importance of this 
matter." * 

It was said by one of the plenipotentiaries at the Congress 
of Eeicheubach that the Black Sea was more important to 
England than all Asia : this is no paradox ; in the words of 
Sir John M'Neill, " the policy of Eussia is based upon the 
certainty of spoiling England of her Indian dominion :" 
this spoliation can be prevented only in the Black Sea. Were 
the space filled by that water, dry land, or were it, like the 
Caspian, girt round with coasts, England would probably have 
had nothing in Asia to possess ; at all events, she would be 
now without the means of defending what she has. If you 
stop up the passage by a parchment chain, it is just as if in 
the Euxine there remained no water to float your vessels, and 
in the Bosphorus no soundings for them to pass. 

To close the entrance against you, is to open the passage 
to the Indus to Eussia. To that end it is that the fabulous 
darkness of the ancient Pontus has been diplomatically ex- 
tended over the modern Euxine, and that no Jason is to be 
found in the British Navy. How resolute and intent has 
she been during your languid slumber, or somnambulent 
* These extracts are from Dr. Nebenius. 



300 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



convulsions ! During the great European war, in which her 
very existence seemed at stake, Russia would not concede one 
point in reference to the Danubian Principalities. In 1 8 1 2 she 
would not, when struck home by Napoleon, relieve herself from 
the Ottoman Empire as a foe by the slightest surrender. • 
The pertinacity with which she clung to what appeared 
useless and unintelligible clauses bearing upon wilds and 
deserts, so far from awakening the curiosity of European 
statesmen, raised only a smile of pity at her expense. 

Up to the year 1833, no direct trade had been carried on 
between England and the Euxine. Whether, however, a large 
quantity of her goods were sent by Constantinople and 
Germany, at the fair of Leipsic alone, the demand amounted 
to £300,000. In the following year two British vessels en- 
tered the Danube, in the next year fifteen, in the course of 1 836 
twice that number were expected ; the native traffic in small 
vessels amounting to between 700 and 800 cargoes. This 
rapid development roused Russia to the adoption of decisive 
measures, which were as minute as they were daring, as in- 
tricate as comprehensive ; now discrediting a firm, now firing 
on a brig, now fingering kegs of butter and skins of 
tallow, now grasping an estuary : at last came the " crowning 
work," — the robbery from Europe of its principal river by 
care for its health ! 

The exports are raw and heavy produce, for which water 
carriage is essential. The return manufactured articles 
might bear the charges of land carriage, but the demand is 
limited by the amount of exportation. The Danube is not 
only the only water communication, but it is the only road. 
Ores of metals (its mines were the richest of the Roman 
empire) ; rocksalt (of which it contains mountains) ; timber 
(with which the sides of its mountains are clothed) ; hides, 
tcool, tallow, sheep, goatskins (flocks and herds may be mul- 
tiplied to any extent), grain (in 1833 and 1834, when 
Russia, suffering from famine, was supplied by them, although 

# In 1806 she made these Principalities the occasion of repluuging 
England and France in war, and in 1812, gained Bessarabia. 



COMMERCE OE EUEOPE ANI> ASIA. SOI 



recently relieved from occupation, and still suffering from the 
effect of a war, which had drawn from them five millions sterling, 
and destroyed one quarter of the cattle) ; hemp of the finest 
quality (in the year 1835, it competed in London with that 
of St. Petersburg, notwithstanding the quadruple charge 
of transport) : such were the products they could offer to 
England. Nor are these all : the Princes of Wallachia and 
Moldavia, were anxious to rival the Pasha of Egypt in the 
production of cotton (upon the importance to England of 
multiplying the sources, and augmenting the amount of that 
raw material, it is needless to dwell), and a vast region is 
available for the culture of the mulberry. 

This traffic would have been of peculiar advantage to the 
English shipping interest ; the freight to the Danube is 60s. 
when that to the Baltic is 15s. and to Canada 30s. • thus the 
hemp, tallow, grain, or timber, coming from the Provinces, 
would have given, as compared with Canada, an increased 
employment of shipping of one-half, and as compared wiih 
the Baltic of three-fourths. 

The natural difficulties of the navigation were indeed great, 
but capable of being easily removed ; and notwithstanding 
their existence, this commerce, till arrested by extraneous 
means, was rapidly increasing, and might by this time have 
exceeded that which we carry on with France. If it has not 
been entirely crushed, it is owing to the enormous resources 
of the country, — its exuberant fertility, the lowness of price, 
and the laboriousness and parsimony of the people. 

The basin of the Danube producing, as we have seen, 
exactly the same articles as Eussia, every ton exported from 
the Danube was a ton less exported from Odessa or St. 
Petersburg. But besides the difference in the source, com- 
petition would have affected the price; one shilling reduction 
on the cwt. of tallow or the quarter of grain, is a loss to 
Eussia of from £50,000 to £100,000. A document pub- 
lished at Odessa under the authority of Count Woronzow, at 
a time when no danger was anticipated, is plain and conclu- 
sive on these points. 



302 THE DANUBE AXD EUXIXE. 



u Although the three principal mouths of the Danube are 
in the power of Russia, it is only a small number of her pro- 
ducts that are exported by the two ports of Bessarabia, — 
Ismail, and Beni. The towns of Galatz and Ibrail, the only 
' debouches* of Moldavia and Walla chia, pom* the superfluity 
of these rich provinces into the commerce of the Black Sea. 
The protecting sceptre of Bussia has created these formidable 
rivals of herself. If the obstacles which have hitherto impeded 
the navigation of the Danube come to be entirely removed, 
this will much facilitate the vent of Austrian articles of 
merchandise in the provinces, and will open vp for some of 
them a icay to arrive at other countries. 

" The advantages of this navigation for the trade of the 
Principalities, which consists principally in exchanges for the 
products of Austria, are incalculable. Galatz especially will 
gain by it greatly as an entrepot for Austrian goods, which 
will be sent thence to the Levant and to the ports of the 
Black Sea. Austria may even export by the Danube the wheat 
of the Banat, which can be bought on the spot at eleven roubles 
the tchetwert, and is said to be of a superior quality. The 
hemp of Hungary, of which the English have already made 
great purchases and formed depots at Apathin and at Eszek 
(whence it is sent by water to Siszeck and Carlstadt, and 
from these places by land to Trieste), might here find perhaps 
an easier route than by Trieste, as well as timber, which is 
at present sent with difficulty to Fium. Galatz and Ibrail 
are about to cultivate virgin countries and of great extent. 
Ismail and Beni (the Bussian ports) must of necessity 
attach themselves to these giants who threaten to over- 
whelm them. So long as those ?cho are engaged in the 
trade of Ibrail and Galatz shall be free from every impost, 
it would be necessary at least to reserve to the merchants of 
Bessarabia the same immunity, to prevent their leaving the 
country, as many of them have already done. 

" Trebizond has always been of importance as the port 
nearest to Erzerum, and its commerce may be estimated at 
twenty million roubles per annum. By this route, Englan d 



COMMENCE OE EUEOPE AND ASIA, 303 



and Germany supply Persia and Anatolia with cloths, ladies' 
cloths, calicos, cotton yarn, paper, sugar, coffee, glass ware, 
porcelain, iron, tin, and steel goods. France takes but little 
share in this trade ; but England will soon have crushed her 
rivals by the great establishment which she has formed at 
this point. A single caravan, despatched for Tabriz in 1834, 
was composed of 650 camel loads, 450 of which were pil- 
laged by the Kurds on the road from Erzerum to Tabriz. 
What means can Eussia adopt for rivalling the English 
in this locality? 55 

These last words indicate the purpose of all Russia's com- 
mercial efforts. She is no rival of England, as far as manu- 
factures or commerce go ; her rivalry is political. The 
question really means, " How can an end be put to English 
commerce, and what other commerce is to be substituted in 
its place? 55 This, like the statement I have before quoted, 
is addressed to Germany, and it says — Eussia is open to an 
offer. 

I shall now proceed to the means of execution. No history 
has recorded, no fable has devised, things more marvellous 
than the events connected with this river. Here will be 
seen how Eussia bends every will, Procrusteses every measure 
to suit and fit her purposes. I shall have to record my own 
failures ; but, in this case, failure, of necessity, is parent of 
success. It was not her sight but our blindness that was 
terrible. There is a time when evil measures prevail, but 
that time comes, too, when they are brought to light. The 
series of facts now completed — disconnected during their 
course by time and distance, here brought together, may 
furnish that light, and enable eyes to see that have long been 
closed. 



304 



CHAPTER II. 

Russian Qitarantine on the Danube, and the 
Coast of Circassia* 

The marshy islands forming the Delta of the Danube are 
uninhabited and utterly valueless, except as a station com- 
manding the river in war, and for that purpose only in so far 
as they are fortified. They were ceded to Eussia at the 
Treaty of Adrianople, by which any fortification on them was 
prohibited. The plague, however, is in those countries the 
fierce enemy of mankind, and it was an interest common to 
the contracting parties, and indeed to all Europe, to arrest its 
ravages. Provision was therefore made for effecting this 
purpose at the mouth of the Danube, and quarantines were 
excepted from the sweeping restriction against all constructions 
whatever within six miles of the river, and so on the unin- 
habited and useless islands a lazzaretto was built. But if 
sanitary regulations are established, they must be enforced ■ 
and the method of enforcing them is by guns. These were, 
therefore, placed in such a manner as to command the vessels 
passing up the river. 

The Treaty by which these islands were obtained closed a 
long series of negotiations and warlike operations in which 
Eussia was allied with England and France ; consequently, 
reciprocal engagements existed as to the terms of future set- 
tlement. It is necessary to recall the outline of the events to 
explain the nature of these engagements. 

In 1821, an armed force crossed the Pruth, headed by a 
Eussian general. This was the Greek Insurrection. She 
required the Porte to withdraw its troops, offering her own 



BUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 



305 



to put it down. On the refusal of the Porte, she appealed 
to the Sanctity of Treaties, and recalled her ambassador, 
entrusting her interests to the ambassador of England. 

For five years the Greek war and the Eussian differences go 
on ; an adjustment then takes place at Ackermann, on the 
pledge of Eussia not to interfere any more in Greece : she had 
just signed a Protocol (secret) with England to interfere in. 

The Greeks had applied for protection, not to Eussia, but 
to England ; not against Turkey but Eussia.* Mr. Canning 
sends the Duke of Wellington to concert measures at St. 
Petersburoh. Thus was imposed on two litigants the mediation 
of the very power whom both charged with being the source 
of their ill will. The Protocol of the 4th of April, 1826, is 
the record of this infatuation. 

" His Britannic Majesty having been requested by the Greeks 
to interpose his good offices in order to obtain their recon- 
ciliation with the Ottomon Porte, having in consequence 
offered his Mediation to that Power, and being desirous of 
concerting the measure of his Government upon this subject, 
with His Majesty the Emperor of all the Eussias, &c." 

By being imposed upon the belligerents as Mediatrix, 
Eussia was constituted Arbitress of the Alliance, which had . 
been called into being only with the view of clogging her 
separate action, who was dreaded as all-powerful, and had for 
effect to make her so by subjecting to her control the 
measures of the allies. f 

England took precautions to prevent any misapplication of 

* M. Eodios to Mr. Canning, August 12, 1824—" The Govern- 
ment (ol Greece) would have persevered in its system of silence were 
it not forced to break it by a note proceeding from the north of 
Europe. This note decides on the fate of Greece, by a will that is 
foreign to it. The Greek nation prefer a glorious death to the dis- 
graceful lot intended to be imposed upon them." 

Mr. Canning replies : — " The opinion of the British Government 
is that any plan proceeding from the Cabinet of St. Petersburg can 
be drawn up only with friendly intentions towards Greece." 

t See extract from M. Yon Prokesch at the end of thi3 Chapter, 
Note IL 



306 



THE DANUBE AND EUXIXE. 



this unconsciously transferred power ; and at least the proof 
of her good faith shines forth in the following moral and 
benignant period : — 

"His Britannic Majesty and his Imperial Majesty will not 
seek in this arrangement for any increase of territory, nor any 
exclusive influence nor advantages in commerce for their 
subjects which shall not be equally attainable by all other 
nations." 

Eussia now proposed that the Protocol should beccme a 
Treaty, stipulating in certain contingencies measures of 
coercion. 

Mr. Canning stood aghast. He perceived at a glance the 
consequences, but it was too late. He had been overreached 
in the Protocol,* and could not face the threatened exposure 
to his colleagues. (The despatch instructing the Kussian 
Ambassador, as to how he was to be handled, has been pub- 
lished in the second number of the " Portfolio," new series.) 
He put his hand to the Treaty on the 6th of July (1827), and 
in a couple of months died of a broken heart. Yet that 
Treaty, be it ever remembered, did bind each of the allies not 
to acquire territory, nor to suffer it to be acquired. 

Within a few weeks of the Treaty for the " Pacification of 
the East" the Turkish navy is annihilated. The Porte 
demands satisfaction, and suspends intercourse with the 
Ambassadors. "These functionaries retire, and the Porte 
believes itself already at war with England, France, and 
Eussia.' 5 Then the Powers " solemnly take upon themselves 
the obb'gation that the successes their superiority seems to 
promise them in this struggle shall not lead them to seek any 
exclusive advantage whatever." 

Eussia, however, relieves them from belligerent duties and 
the care of " exclusive advantages." She invades the pro- 
vinces in the beginning of the next year, and notwithstanding 
the extinction by the allies of the Turkish naval force, to 

* Negotiated to prevent the separate action of Russia, and stipu- 
lating the right cf separate action for each. The double infatuation 

passes belief. 



RUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 



307 



the astonishment of Europe, the campaign is a drawn one. 
" The experience/ 5 says Pozzo de Borgo, confidentially ad- 
dressing his chief, " we have just made must now reconcile all 
opinions in favour of the resolution which has been taken. If 
the Sultan has been enabled to offer us so determined and 
regular a resistance, whilst he had scarcely drawn together 
the elements of his new plan, how formidable should we have 
found him had he had time to give to it more solidity. 55 

Her contemporaneous view of her engagements to her 
allies is rather amusing ; the avowal of her agents is frank,* 
and their language always naive. One sentence will suffice. 
The two Russian Ambassadors in London write on the 13th 
of June : — 

" The news which Count Pozzo de Borgo has sent us, on 
the position of the French Minis try, which is every day more and 
more uncertain, have determined us not to alienate completely 
the Cabinet of London before the answers from Constantinople 
relieve us from anxiety. 55 They, therefore, assure Lord 
Aberdeen, " That, in case of success the Emperor would be 
under an obligation to consult his allies, and that a definite 
state of things would not be established without their assent 
and concurrence." On this they require a public manifestation 
which shall " discourage the resistance of the Porte ! 55 
Lord Aberdeen strives to extract in the first instance some 
knowledge of the proposed conditions of the peace, in which 
he was to concur, but the Russian diplomatists, duly estimating 
Lord Aberdeen's penetration, confine themselves to gene- 
ralities ; as every " substantive communication on so delicate 
a subject would draw down real dangers. 55 

No doubt it was toil and embarrassment enough for the 
* " With respect to the free navigation of the Bosphorus," says 
the Kussian ambassador to Lord Aberdeen, in June, 1829, "it con- 
stitutes one of our necessities, for to it the prosperity of a part of 
the domains of the Emperor is united by an indissoluble link. We 
cannot permit the caprice of a vizier, or a favourite sultana, to arrest at 
will the whole movement of commerce, the whole progress of public 
and private industry in many of our provinces." This to the British 
Minister is an argument, not a revelation. 



303 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



English Foreign Secretary to have to deal with one Russian 
Ambassador ; but on this occasion two were sprung upon him, 
and these not of equal mettle, but the one heavy and the other 
fleet; so that as " force needs when the devil drives," there 
was no escape for him either with the hare or with the hounds. 
The pallid statesman was saddled with the Treaty (he is 
always burdened with a Treaty) — the Treaty of the 6th of 
July;* combining perspicuity with integrity, he avows his 
resolution to carry it into effect, and his inability to compre- 
hend what the effect would be. One assurance he does 
possess, the disinterestedness of Russia in waiving her bel- 
ligerent lights in the Mediterranean (which she did not waive) 
to afford facilities for the settlement of the Eastern question. 

His troubles, however, were not confined to the torture 
of diplomatic discussions, or the toil of despatches. He 
had to encounter the fire of St. Stephen's and the wordy 
war that breaks no bones, but sometimes does worse. Like 
a thunderbolt in a clear sky, opposition to Foreign policy 
flashes for the first time forth, and in the Peers and the 
Commons he is exposed to questions, sneers, and denun- 
ciations. This energy of the insular mind must be prompted 
by the danger of Turkey and the pretensions of Russia, the 
commercial interests of England and the illegal interference 
with her trade ? Not in the least. He is assailed because not 
sufficiently "Russian," and is imperiously required to give an 
account of his false dealing with Sultan Mahmoud against 
Czar Nicholas, because of his antiquated aspirations for 
despotism, and his inveterate animosity to liberty and inde- 
pendence. He is told that Turkey is the aggressor, Russia 
the victim, and that the peace of Europe and the honour of 
England were not to be sacrificed on account of " unpro- 
nouncable fortresses on the Danube. 5 5 f In fact, the oppo- 
sition of IS 2 9 in the British Parliament presented a parallel 

* This is the first of the " July" Treaties which became known at 
the end of one session to be forgotten before the opening of the 
next. 

t Speech of Lord Palmerston, 1st June, 1829. 



EUSSIAN QUAEANTINE. 



309 



to the opposition in 1791, with this difference however, 
that the collusion of Fox with the Czarina was directed 
against statesmanlike measures of resistance, whilst the 
compact between the Eussian embassy and the then ex- 
Secretary-at-War was for the purpose of goading on a 
sulky beast of burden in its miry path. It therefore 
required no great knowledge of the world for the two 
Eussian ambassadors, on concluding the report of the in- 
terviews with Lord Aberdeen and the Duke of Wellington, 
to write " It is in the midst of our camp that peace must be 
signed : Europe must learn its conditions only when it is 
concluded. Eemonstrances will then be too late, and it will 
patiently suffer what it can no longer prevent." 

The declaration of war (26th April, 1828) had asserted 
that Eussia was far from cherishing ambitious projects, suffi- 
cient people and countries acknowledging already her sway ; 
already sufficient anxieties were connected with the extent 
of her dominion. 

In the manifesto at its close (1st of October, 1829), she 
declares, "that she has remained constantly a stranger to 
every desire of conquest, and to every view of aggrandise- 
ment. 55 She announces, as the consequence of her triumph, 
the freedom of the Dardanelles u to the commerce of all 
nations, 55 and the arrestation of the plague by the occupation 
of the left bank of the Danube. 

A doubt has been raised whether the stipulation forbid- 
ding acquisition did apply in reference to Turkish territory, 
insomuch as the Porte had not accepted the Treaty of July 6th 
(she had objected only on the ground that Russia was a party 
to it); but on the 9th September, 1829, that is, before the 
signature of the Treaty of Adrianople, her formal adhesion 
was given in these terms : — 

11 The Sublime Porte declares, that having already adhered 
to the Treaty of London, it now further promises and pledges 
to subscribe entirely to all the decisions which the Conference 
of London shall adopt with respect to its execution. 55 

The letter of Pertef Pasha to the Pashas of the Empire, 



310 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



which Kussia made the pretext of the rupture, his country- 
men are now pleased to censure with misjudging bitterness. 
The rupture, as seen by the words quoted from the Despatch 
of Pozzo de Borgo, was determined on other grounds, and had 
been for two years prepared for with unceasing activity. 

All this had come out of a false term. Mediation is 
Arbitration, and can be undertaken only at the request and 
with the consent of both litigants. A forced Mediation is a 
War in disguise. 

England determines to mediate ; but, instead of commu- 
nicating with the parties, she communicates with the Govern- 
ment obnoxious to both, and which actually was on the point 
of rupture with one of them. This communication is secret. 
Having concerted measures, they apply not even then to 
the parties, but to another Foreign Power. This is a con- 
spiracy ! The three then draw up a Treaty to enforce by 
arms, if necessaiy, the common decisions of their ministers. 
They commence, indeed, by placing one limit to their omni- 
potence — they shall spare the sovereignty of the Sultan. 
Their first act is to destroy his fleet ; their next, to make 
Greece independent. With a heroism that found no appre- 
ciation, the Porte prepared to perish, and accepted the war. 
The two associates then hold back, and Eussia makes her 
separate war — but the Conferences continue ! The Porte, 
though not again attacked by the Powers, except through 
Greece, lies under all the effect of a suspended invasion, and 
thus at last does England constrain her to accomplish the 
Treaty of the 6th of July by forcing her to submit to the 
decisions of a Mediation with one of the members of 

W 7 HICH SHE WAS ACTUALLY AT WAU. 

To the inhumanity of her acts England was blinded by her 
philanthropy and integrity ; to the consequences of her policy, 
by her trust in her ally. She had proceeded upon the faith 
pledged, that the stipulations of the Treaty of the 6th of 
July should ever be sacred in the eyes of that Government. 
When she made at last the discovery that these stipulations 
had in its eyes no value, when she found herself betrayed at 



EUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 



311 



the close as she had been duped at the beginning, then she 
" reserves " her judgment ! 

Some credit is due to Lord Aberdeen for having, at the 
conclusion of the war, ventured to pen a despatch to 
St. Petersburg, reserving to the King, his master, the futile 
and superfluous right " of judging of the sacrifices which 
Turkey would be called upon to make," a right which, it is 
needless to say, was never exercised, and a despatch which, 
it has been asserted, by some course of necromancy, has dis- 
appeared from the archives of the Foreign Office. Eussia 
knew that England was as destitute of knowledge to restore 
as of ability to construct, of courage to avenge as of fore- 
sight to prevent ; at least it is not necessary now to misjudge. 
Let us learn one lesson from our shame — that to associate 
ourselves with Eussia is not the way to counteract. As 
regards the mouths of the Danube, the advantage which she 
secured was solely of value to her by their exclusion, and the 
injury which thereby she was enabled to inflict upon them. 
The following is the article of the Treaty : — 

" The frontier line will follow the course of the Danube to 
the mouth of St. George, leaving all the islands formed by the 
different branches in the possession of Eussia. The right 
bank will remain as formerly, in the possession of the Otto- 
man Porte. It is, however, agreed, that that right bank, 
from the point where the arm of St. George departs from that 
of Souline, shall remain uninhabited to a distance of two hoars 
(six miles) from the river, and that no kind of structure shall 
be raised there ; and in like manner, on the islands, which will 
remain in the possession of the court of Eussia. With 'the 
exception of quarantines which will be there established, it will 
not be permitted to make any other establishment or forti- 
fication." 

Of what toil have we not here the fruit — of what purposes 
the germ ! Observe the limitation to the navigation of the 
Danube assumed in the form of a concession : here is the 
announcement of the intended quarantine so long after 
established. 



318 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



The attitude and language of Russia now changes. She 
has no longer to draw us on : she has only to prevent us from 
escaping. In our conduct a similar alteration appears ; the 
cold fit succeeds to the hot, and we are now all apathy 
and endurance. She waits nearly two years before the next 
step ; it is, of course, Quarantine, but not on the Danube, 
she turns to the fabulous regions beyond the Euxine. 

On the 8th of August, 1831, the Kussian Cabinet addressed 
a despatch to its representative at Constantinople, informing 
him of the " constant care devoted by our government in order 
to preserve the neighbour big foreign countries from the con- 
tagious disease arising from Turkey," and of its intention to 
subject to sanitary regulations "the communications which 
freely exist between the inhabitants of the Caucasus and the 
neighbouring Turkish Provinces" This admission of the 
Caucasus being a " foreign country " has in view the esta- 
blishing of a case applicable to the Danubian Provinces. " It 
becomes indispensable that you should communicate the above 
mentioned regulations to the foreign missions at Constantinople, 
as well as to the Ottoman government itself. 55 

Now was the time come for the exercise of the right reserved 
by the English Government to judge of sacrifices to be imposed 
on Turkey. It could not by silence escape from a decision ; 
there was no alternative between protesting and publishing 
the Notification in the " Gazette ; 55 all such Notifications of 
Quarantine being published in the " Gazette ; indeed the 
minister is personally liable in the courts of law for damage 
accruing from such suppression. But mere silence sufficed 
so far as Kussia was concerned, for thereafter no step could 
be taken against the Treaty, and, therefore, while the Protest 
was not made, neither was the Notification published. To 
avoid this last difficulty, the communication was not made 
direct, but through the minister at Constantinople ; while 
suppressed in England, it was exhibited by the consul at 
Constantinople and so all vessels were warned off the coast. 
The Foreign Secretary was no longer Lord Aberdeen, but his 
vehement Parliamentary Antagonist. 



RUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 



313 



The curious part is that these " Regulations 99 had no 
existence. They are referred to as enclosed first by the 
Russian Minister, then by the Russian Ambassador, and 
lastly by the British Minister at Constantinople ; yet are they 
not to be found in any one of the three despatches. 

But that is a small matter. The Quarantine in itself had 
no existence. I visited the whole coast in 1834, and found 
none. From Nicolai, the frontier Turkish port which was in 
quarantine, I sailed for the Russian station at Gelengick, 
where Russian officers, after a few words about quarantine, 
came on board ; and I was received on board the Russian 
brig of war, which captured the Yixen ; thence I went on 
shore; accompanied by the commandant of the fort T went 
to the place of intercourse with the Circassians, which had, 
indeed, the form of a Parlatorio, but where no measures of 
quarantine whatever were observed. I then sailed for Sou- 
jouk Su, where I landed, and then to Sevastapol, and was put 
in quarantine because coming from the coast of Circassian 
The Admiral came alongside and was informed of our inter- 
course with the Russian authorities on the coast, and of our 
landing there; no exception was taken to their conduct.* It 
follows that Russia's doctrines on contagion was of the same 
texture as her opinions on politics and framed exclusively for 
the good of " Foreign Countries." 

It has been argued for Russia, that the regulations existed 
for Anapa and Redout Kale where there were quarantines, 
and that as to the rest of the coasts the prohibition to 
approach was a Regulation. Then why does she approach ? 
A sanitary Regulation that is not good to stop a Russian is 
surely bad for the other inhabitants of the earth. 

* I visited Silistria when occupied by the Russians; "travel- 
lers" had to perform fifteen days' quarantine, but Russians were 
liable to infection only by a graduated scale: ten days for a 
private, five for a captain ; a field officer had three, a superior officer 
none. Foreign despatches were fumigated with much care, Russian 
despatches utterly neglected. 



14 



tU THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 

All this time nothing has been done as to the foreshadowed 
Quarantine of the Danube ; but the sudden development of 
the trade of the Principalities, which commenced in 1834, 
when they supplied 500,000 tchetverts of grain to southern 
Russia re-awakened her solicitude; and on the 7th of Fe- 
bruary, 1836, appeared the Ukase to intercept vessels 
" proceeding on their voyage up the Danube," and s^nd 
them to Odessa ! If the Turkish Government, in its pro- 
verbial improvidence, had neglected the care of the health of 
the populations bordering on the Danube, it had at least 
attended to their comforts so far as to keep open the naviga- 
tion of the stream by pallisades to narrow the current, and 
dredges to prevent accumulation of sand. When surren- 
dered by Turkey the channel averaged a depth of twelve 
feet, in the beginning of 1836 it had been reduced to eight. 
Thus, says a contemporary writer, " an impenetrable bar will 
be formed at the mouth of this river, and Russia to her 
important possessions will add that of an iron gate between 
the Danube and the Euxine."* 

It mattered not whether the vessel came from Liverpool 
or Trebizond, or was destined for Russian or Turkish Ports, 
and as in the " Regulation " for Circassia, Custom-house 
and Quarantine are jumbled together, so here, " This 
Quarantine, in so far as regards tlie Customs, is to be 
regulated by the same laws as the present Quarantine of 
Bazert check." 

Before adventuring on the Ukase of the 7th February she 
had felt her way by the forced visit of vessels, the inspec- 
tion of their papers, the exaction of fees, facts brought to the 
knowledge of the British Foreign Office two months before 
the Ukase, and anxiously sought out by that Office. The 
chief partner of the principal English House at Bucharest 
writes on the 7th December, 1835 ; " I saw Mr. Strang- 
ways to-day, and told him that I had information to-day from 
two captains of vessels I have had arrived from the Danube, 
that they were both required to show their papers to the 

* Times Cor., March 2, 1836. 



RUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 



315 



Russian Commandant at the mouth of that river, settled 
with about 100 troops on the Turkish side, and they were 
told that there were three and four dollars to be paid when 
their papers were returned to them signed. They were also 
required almost by force to desist from tracking their vessels 
on the Russian side of the river, although Greek and Turkish 
vessels were allowed to do so. Mr. S. desired me to furnish 
the details for Lord Palmerston, which I hope to be able to 
do to-night." 

Each of these acts was an infraction of the public law of 
Europe. The Treaty of Vienna (Art. 109) declares that the 
Navigation of Rivers " along their whole course, from the 
point where each of them become navigable to its mouth, 
shall be entirely free." By Art. Ill, "the amount of the 
duties shall, in no case, exceed those now (1815) paid," and 
" no increase shall take place except with the common con- 
sent of the States bordering on the rivers." By Art. 113? 
" each State shall be at the expense of keeping in good re- 
pair the Towing Paths," and " shall maintain the necessary 
works in order that no obstruction shall be experienced by 
the navigation." 

The British Nation, and indeed all Europe, was vehe- 
mently excited ; an indignation was aroused, such as had 
never on any occasion been manifested since the w T ar with 
France. The papers were unanimous in their denunciations ; 
the leading commercial cities sent up petitions to Parliament, 
praying for " protection " and resistance to " the encroach- 
ments of Russia." Addresses in the same sense were laid 
at the feet of the King, who, himself a sailor, was known to 
" share to the fullest extent in the emotion of his people ;" 
and it was generally understood that a Majority of the 
Commons were ready to vote an Address, embodying the 
appeal of the merchants, and further praying for the adoption 
of measures for the entrance of a British squadron into the 
Black Sea. 

But in what position stood the minister? He had ad- 
mitted the measures on the Circassian coast ; no more than 



316 THE DANUBE AND EUXINF. 



Mr. Canning could he stand the effects of such a disclosure. 
The trouble of his position is revealed in a trifling circum- 
stance. I have said that the press was unanimous : there was. 
however, one exception, — The "Morning Chronicle," the 
avowed organ of the Foreign Office. Another, though un- 
a vowed organ of that office, "The Portfolio/' took lead on 
the opposite side.* 

The Address was to be moved by Mr. Patrick Stewart, in 
the Commons, on the 20th of April, and as the Government 
had reserved every expression of its views, no less curiosity 
than excitement prevailed. Late on the night of the 19th 
I was informed that the motion was to be put off. I hastened 
to Mr. P. Stewart, and found him in bed ; he told me that 
he had yielded to a representation that the Cabinet was " all 
right and firm," and likely to be embarrassed by a public 
discussion. It required but few words to induce him to 
withdraw his assent to the postponement, and he moved 
according to notice on the following night. 

Mr. Patrick Stewart's exposition of the case was complete. 
He justified the demand for " protection," by proving the 
violation of natural rights, treaty stipulations, and solemn 
pledges ; he showed the infraction of the Treaty of Vienna, 
exposed the perfidious character of Kussia's policy, and the 
alarming nature of her projects. The Minister concurred 
in the statement and resisted the Address. " His Majesty's 
Government, he said, had no desire or disposition to submit 
to aggression from any power." Mr. Stewart, conceiving 

* The views of that periodical the following extracts will show : — 
" The formation of English establishments in those provinces, and 
the exportation of raw produce, which are the staples of Russia, by 
means of British capital and enterprise, naturally inspire her with 
great and not unfounded alarm. She therefore has proceeded quietly 
to establish point by point, control over the river. * * * Against 
this outrage it was understood that remonstrance had been made by 
Great Britain, and we suppose that according to custom the Ukase 
referred to in the St. Petersburg paragraph is the answer of the 
Autocrat to this remonstrance ! What can England be supposed to 
say, save 6 Four on^ I mil endure V " 



RUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 



817 



that by this declaration lie " was as much committed as he 
could be by any act," withdrew his motion : it entered into 
no man's mind to doubt, that the quarantine and tolls on the 
Danube would be removed. In Parliament the matter was 
never revived : there is no trace of a communication with the 
Russian Cabinet on the subject : but the quarantine still 
stands on the Island of Forgetfulness (Leti). 

Fifteen days after the debate, the following letter was 
written to Messrs. Bell : — 

"Foreign Office, May oth, 1836. 

f£ Gentlemen, 

"In acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 
27th ultimo, upon the subject of the obstructions offered by 
the Russian authorities to the free navigation of the Danube, 
I am directed by Yiscount Palmerston, to acquaint you that 
his Lordship has called upon the law adviser for the Crown for 
his opinion as to the regulations promulgated by the Russian 
uJcase of the 1th of February, 1836; but in the meantime, 
Lord Palmerston directs me to acquaint you with respect to 
the latter part of your letter, that it is the opinion of his 
Majesty's government, that no toll is justly demanded by the 
RussiaD authorities at the mouth of the Danube, and that 
you have acted properly in directing your agents to refuse to 
pay it. 

" I am, Gentlemen, Stc, &c, 

(Signed) " J. Backhouse." 

The fact so communicated to a merchant is reserved from 
Parliament. The reference to the law officers showed that 
the Government had not made up its mind ; how, then, 
should it concur in the statements of Mr. P. Stew art ? The 
merchant is encouraged to resist aggressions of a foreign 
state. Why is that Government not required to desist from 
them ? The distinction drawn between similar acts, respect- 
ing one of which the Government had only asked an opinion, 
was not likely to produce collision between the House of 



S13 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



Bell and the Imperial troops. The bold letter of the minis- 
ter puts an end to all resistance, no opinion of the law officers 
ever appears ; and now a Eussian toll is exacted in London 
and Liverpool on every English vessel sailiDg for the Turkish 
ports on the Danube.* 

Whilst the impression prevailed that vigorous measures 
were to be taken, the idea arose of sending a trading vessel 
direct to Circassia. 

This matter was being discussed by the chief authorities. f 
The king so warmly entered into it, that a letter was written 

* Liverpool^ March, 1818. 

In shipping goods to the Danube there are fees to be paid to the 
Russian consul amounting to Dearly £100 per cargo. On each bale, 
or article, even though of metal, two roubles silver are charged 
(6s. M. to 6s. Sd.) There are other expenses for seals, tin cases, and 
extra coverings, imposed by the Russian regulations, without which 
vessels would be sent to Odessa, and subjected to forty days' qua- 
rantine ; interest of money thereby lost, perhaps a market for their 
sale, &c. The agent complained bitterly of the extortion, but his 
London correspondent advised hiin on no account to agitate the 
matter, as the chief house at Bucharest had tried and had failed^ and 
their vessel had been confiscated without compensation. I have been 
told that from the Americans this impost is not exacted. 

t The following extract from a letter of Lord Ponsonby, quoted 
in the House of Commons on the 23d Feb., 18-18, will show his 
en toe concurrence : — 

" I had been led to believe that you had changed your mind 
respecting Circassia. No ! I did not believe it, but I heard it. I am 
delighted with the manner in which you have treated this subject. 
It is admirable. I hope you have approved of what L have done in 
my despatches respecting it. I considered it from the beginning to 
be next in importance to the possession of Constantinople itself : but 
it is only lately, comparatively speaking, that I have known the facts 
of the total freedom of that country from every legitimate connec- 
tion or tie, and therefore the total illegality of any title assumed to 
it by Nicholas. If we had any man in England worth a straw we 
should soon settle these matters ; but our statesmen, high or low, 
are pedlars, but without the sagacity that distinguishes the 
Israelite who carries about his small wares for sale to housemaids and 
scullions." 



RUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 



319 



by his private secretary, stating the great service to his 
country which any merchant might so render. This letter 
was shown to Mr. Bell, and was the origin of the voyage 
of the Vixen. I owe it to Mr. Bell, who is now dead, 
to state that in all the misery and subsequent ruin in- 
curred thereby, he never once alluded to that letter, on 
which alone the step was taken ; and yet he had authority 
to do so. 

Up to this time a Blockade had alone been heard of. The 
Russian cruisers had frequently detained and warned off 
neutral vessels. Several cases had come before the Foreign 
Office, and it was urgent in its inquiries respecting the 
blockade of the coast of Circassia. If there was blockade 
there was war, and there could be neither quarantine nor 
custom-house regulations. But it was not judged prudent 
by Mr. Bell to send his vessel without a specific declaration 
from the Foreign Minister. This letter, however, merely 
asked if there were " any restrictions on trade recognised by 
Her Majesty's Government ?" as if not, he intended to send 
thither a vessel with a cargo of salt. Lord Palmerston answers, 
" You ask me whether it would be for your advantage to engage 
in a speculation in salt in the province of TTallachia," and tells 
him that it is for commercial firms to judge for themselves 
in determining " whether they shall enter into or decline 
commercial speculations." Mr. Bell, now advised from the 
Foreign Office, specifies : he asks, " whether or not Her 
Majesty's Government recognise the Russian Blockade on 
the Black Sea to the south of the river Kouban ?" Now he 
is referred to the " Gazette, in which all Notifications, such 
as those alluded to by you, are made." There having appeared 
in the Gazette neither Notification of ct Blockade," nor of 
"Restrictions," Mr, Bell is satisfied, and the Vixen sails. 
Mr. Bell's brother is to go as supercargo, and he is sent to 
Constantinople with despatches from the Foreign Office. 
There he is informed by the Ambassador of the " Restric- 
tions," but is told, f£ that Russia had no right whatever to 
prescribe regulations for that trade' 3 The vessel sailed, and 



320 



THE DANUBE AND EUXIXE. 



was seized for breaking the Blockade,* and confiscated on 
the 25th of November, 1836. On April 19, 1837, the 
Russian Government is " requested to state the reasons on 
account of which it has thought itself warranted to seize and 
confiscate in time of peace, a merchant-vessel belonging to 
British subjects." All specification of the place where this 
seizure took place is avoided ; it is on the Black Sea. The 
justificatory reasons, according to Lord Palmerston, are : 
first, the receiving on board a cargo not allowed to be im- 
ported at all ; second, an attempt to trade at a Russian port 
where there is no custom-house. In the intemperate note 
demanding satisfaction, it had been forgotten to state where 
this seizure, " in time of peace," had been made. In the 
dignified despatch which closes the affair (23d May, 1837), 
the English Government has discovered the spot where the 
incident occurred, together with some curious historical points 
connected therewith. 

"His Majesty's Government, considering, in the first 
place, that Soujouk Kale, which was acknowledged by Russia, 
in the Treaty of 1783 as a Turkish possession, now belongs 
to Russia, as stated by Count Nesselrode, by virtue of the 
Treaty of Adrianople * * see no sufficient reason to ques- 
tion the right of Bussia to seize and confiscate the Vixen" 

Was it by an unintentional oversight that the Russian 
date of 1783 (according to the old style), was substituted 
for 1784, which must have appeared in any despatch ori- 
ginally drafted in Downing Street ? 

I have subjoined, at the end of the chapter, the complete 
disproof of these assumptions. The then British Ambas- 
sador, — as will be seen from the note at p. 318 — denied the 
power of Turkey to dispose of Soujouk Kale to Russia from 
"the absence of any legitimate subjection to the Sultan." 
Besides, there was no de facto possession, no less than thirty- 

* " Such documents as will prove that the schooner Vixen was 
employed on a blockaded coast" — Admiral Lazareff to Mr. Childs, 
December 24th, 1836, 



RUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 



321 



six British subjects having offered testimony or made affi- 
davit to the contrary. 

Now tear off the lion's skin. What, after the smoke has 
blown away becomes public opinion — enlightened age — 
mighty engine the Press — great parties — constitutional me- 
chanism — balance of powers — Royal prerogative — responsi- 
bility of Ministers — and omnipotence of Parliament ? 
what, with such frauds standing in the place of truth, avails 
physical strength ? 

One, himself of no ordinary powers, who had had occasion 
of making this discovery, observed : " What shocks me, is 
to think that whilst of us a very few can by any chance be 
let into the knowledge of such things, and these few can 
only raise their hands in astonishment, or drop them in 
despair — a barbarous race knew it all along, and deals with 
our vices and illusions as with property." 

We have passed through three phases, under three Ad- 
ministrations, who, whatever their differences in speculative 
matters, coincide in the manner of exercising the highest pre- 
rogative of the Crown. 

In the first period we see the English Minister binding 
Russia to abnegation. In the second, placing conditions 
to his co-operation, and reserving his judgment on her acts. 
In the third, dependent on her forbearance, forced to yield, 
and — to disguise. Of the grave events which marked the 
first period, Parliament took no notice. It allowed the 
surrender of the power of the Crown into the hands of a 
foreign Conspiracy without one word of approval or dis- 
approval. The second period, that of Russia's " separate 
war," called forth only an incidental notice, in a debate on 
Portugal, on the 1st of June, 1829, when the Government 
was attacked for not being sufficiently Russian. During 
three years, Parliamentary history runs in a wholly separate 
channel from the diplomatic and real. In the third period, 
Parliament is awakened — why did it not sleep on ? 

On the 17th of March, 1837, Lord Palmerston declared 
that Russia's acquisitions on the Danube and in Circassia were 

14 § 



322 



THE DANUBE AXD EUXIXE. 



violations of her pledges. Seven years and seven months had 
then elapsed from the occupation of the Delta of the Danu 1 e: 
five years and four months from the notification in respect to 
Cir cassia ; one year and four months from the admission of 
the tolls on the Danube ; one year and three months from the 
TJkase for the Quarantine. Since this declaration eighteen 
years have elapsed without any steps being taken in con- 
formity with it. 

On the 6th of July, 1840, Lord Palmerston declared that 
the Treaty of Vienna did apply to the navigation of the 
Danube. Tour years and five months had then elapsed from 
the communication of the Ukase ; four years and two months 
from the assertion in reference to it, that Her Majesty's 
government was not prepared to submit to any aggression ; 
four years and one month from his commissioning a private 
firm to resist the Russian authorities. Since that declaration 
nearly fifteen years have elapsed without any steps having 
been taken in accordance with this or any other declaration 
of British rights or ministerial intentions. 

The debate of the 6th of July, 1340, arose out of an 
attempt to give effect to a tripartite Treaty proposed by 
Austria, between herself, England, and Turkey, with a view 
of overbearing the interference of Russia in the Danube, and 
which had been frustrated, as shall presently be detailed. It 
is to meet this attempt that the minister brings in the Treaty 
of Yienna. What more do you want ? says he. Have you 
not got the Treaty of Yienna ? That Treaty forbids tolls, 
forbids quarantines, and renders impossible all usurpations. 
Who could answer that question ? Mr. Patrick Stewart was 
dead ; who recollected the Ukase of the 7th of February ? 
Messrs. Bell & Co. had gone into the Gazette ! Who recol- 
lected the letter of marque of the 5 th of May?* 

The Treaty of Adrianople is one day a bad treaty, and 

* On the same occasion the minister assigned as the reason for 
submitting to the infraction of the Treaty of Yienna at Cracow, the 
inland position of the place, which did not admit of the employment 
of England's maritime strength. 



RUSSIAN QUARANTINE. 



323 



another a good treaty.* It is bad when, by merely saying so, 
a river may be shut up ; it is good when a pretext is wanted 
to enable a coast to be shut up. This facility of construction 
belongs to a state of things in which a Parliament can one 
day be disposed of, by telling them* that a matter is under 
discussion, and the next by telling them that it has been 
discussed.f 

These acquisitions have been made, notwithstanding the 
declaration of Lord Aberdeen (6th of June, 1828), that he 
held his Imperial Majesty to the fulfilment of the Treaty of 
July, 1827 ; 

Notwithstanding the protest of the King, that after the 
war he reserved the right to judge of the sacrifices imposed 
on Turkey ; 

Notwithstanding the address to the Crown to protect 
British merchants in the Euxine against such usurpation, 
(20th of April, 1836,) withdrawn because her Majesty's 
government "concurred in the object, and was determined 
to give it effect 

Notwithstanding the official sanction transmitted to a 
private firm (5th of May, 1836), in resisting the Eussian 
authorities on that river ; 

Notwithstanding the declaration of Lord Palmerston (17th 
of March, 1837,) that the acquisitions of Ptussia were a 
violation of English rights ; 

Notwithstanding the declaration of Lord Palmerston, (6th 
of July, 1840,), that the Treaty of Yienna applied to the 

* " The Hon. and Learned Gentleman said, that the Earl of 
Aberdeen protested against the Treaty of Adrianople ; but when he 
says that they did not acknowledge it as a part of the law of Europe, 
he states that which is not borne out by historical facts. They 'pro- 
test against it. But does that amount to denying that the Treaty is 
valid, and that the rights conveyed by it are rights which the con- 
tracting parties are justified in enforcing and maintaining? " &c. — 
Lord Palmerston, Feb. 23d, 1848. 

t On the 17th of March, in one breath the Vixen papers were 
refused because the matter was under discussion, and the Adrianople 
papers because no longer under negotiation. 



324 THE DANUBE AND EUXLNE, 



Danube, and forbade any interference with it by any one 
power. 

If any Government, lawfully in possession of their banks, 
were to interfere with the navigation of the Elbe, or the Rhino, 
Europe would be aroused from one extremity to another. 
But what is the commerce of all the rivers of Europe com- 
pared to that which might flow through the Danube ? 

When this insolent robbery from Europe of its most im- 
portant river was perpetrated, Russia was exhausted by the 
Turkish war, during which Austria had marshalled 200,000 
men to oppose her ; Poland had not yet been subjugated ; 
cordiality reigned between England and France. That robbery 
was formally adopted by the English minister, after an 
interval of seven years, when England and France were 
united in the most intimate alliance based on the necessity 
of resisting her encroachments, the press of Europe was 
ringing with denunciations of her perfidy and designs, and 
the announcement of the increase of the British Navy, * as 
the reply to the speech at Warsaw, had been made amidst 
the acclamations of Parliament and Nation. Such was the 
moment seized for the perpetration of outrage, such as Spain 
never dared under Phillip II, or France under Louis XIV. 

* It was insinuated, indeed, at the time, in Parliament, that the 
augmentation was against France, but an explanation was offered to 
the French government, and with the recommendation, so at least I 
have been informed by M. Thiers, to augment its navy — with what 
purpose the following passage may suggest. On the 1st of March, 
1848, Lord Palmerston said : — 

" Of course, also, though I do not recollect the circumstance as 
having happened in 1835, or 1836, the immense amount of the naval 
preparation in France^ must always form an element in taking into 
account the mean3 which England must possess," &c. 



325 



Note I. 

DOCUMENTS CONNECTED WITH THE CONFISCA- 
TION OF THE VIXEN AND THE INDEPEND- 
ENCE OF CIECASSIA. 

ME. J. S. BELL TO MR. URQUHART. 

"Pera, Nov. 2, 1836. 

Cf Sir, — In consequence of your having referred me to 
Lord Ponsonby for information respecting any legal impedi- 
ment that might exist to prevent my projected trading voyage 
to Circassia, I proceeded to Therapia on Thursday last and 
obtained an interview with his Lordship. 

" I now send you, according to your request, the enclosed 
copy of the memorandum I took of the conversation that 
passed between his Lordship and myself, a copy of which I 
have transmitted to his Lordship also for his approval. 

" I remain, Sir, your obedient humble servant, 

" D. Urquhart, Esq. James S. Bell." 

"MEMORANDUM OF INTERVIEW WITH LORD PONSONBY. 

"On Thursday, the 27th of October, 1836, I proceeded to 
Therapia, and having obtained an interview with Lord 
Ponsonby, I begged of his Lordship to inform me if he were 
aware of any legal impediment existing to prevent my making 
a mercantile voyage to the coast of Circassia. 

" His lordship in reply observed, that he had lately received 
a renewal of the previous intimation given by the Eussian 
Government as to trade with that coast being interdicted, 
except upon certain conditions. But that as he considered 
that the Russian Government had no right whatever to pre- 
scribe rules for that trade, he had not complied with the request 
of the Charge d' Affaires to have such notice intimated to our 
Consul at Constantinople, but had sent a copy of the intima- 
tion to the Foreign Office in London, from which he had not 
received any communication on the subject. 

" I then informed his Lordship that it was my intention to 
proceed in a vessel I expected daily, to a certain point on the 
coast of Circassia, which I had fixed upon as most eligible 
for the trade I had in view ; and that as I had ascertained 



326 THE DANUBE AND EUXIXE. 



before leaving London that our Government did not then 
acknowledge any right on the part of Eussia to impede trade 
with the country in question ; and as nothing seemed to have 
since occurred to change the position of affairs ; I should 
endeavour to attain the object I had in view, and should not 
be diverted from it unless force were employed on the part of 
the Eussian Government, and hoped to obtain his Lordship's 
aid in so doing. 

" In reply to this his Lordship stated, that he perfectly 
coincided in the propriety of the plan I had adopted, to which 
he had no objection whatever to offer, as he considered it an 
indisputable point that Eussia had no right to interfere with 
or prescribe rules for British trade with Circassia ; and that, 
if I adhered to the straightforward course I had detailed to 
him, he had no doubt of my being enabled to establish a 
claim for support from the British Government, in which he 
would be glad to render me all the assistance in his power, 
requesting me at the same time to transmit him information 
as to what success attended my enterprise. 

"James S. Bell." 

MR. STRANGW T AYS TO MR. URQUHART. 

(Extract). Foreign Office, Uh Feb. 

" I cannot omit alluding to the capture of the Vixen with- 
out telling you that it has had all the effect on the public 
that you could have anticipated, and even more than I 
expected, knowing the temper of the people here. It is now 
under legal and Government discussion, so I need say no 
more. Bell's statements and his brother's documents tell 
very well for him. 

" As the public here are very obtuse on foreign matters, 
et il faut /aire fleclie de tout bois, I wish when the coast is cleared, 
which I hope it will be by this business, you could send some 
artist, or better, a gentleman who can draw and write travels, 
&c, to make a tour in Circassia ; it would do admirably for 
London and be well got up here. 

" I should warn you, that in giving any accounts of the 
Vixen transaction, you may be liable to misrepresentation, as 
it would not be thought proper, if, being Secretary of Em- 
bassy, you had incited Mr. J. Bell to make the voyage as a 
diplomatic experiment ; I can answer for its having been the 
intention of Mr. G. Bell long before in London. This hint 
comes from high authority." 



XOTES. 



327 



VISCOUNT PALME RSTON TO MR. URQUHART, 

(Extract). "March 10th, 1837. 

" The present communication [Mr. U.'s recall] is founded 
upon your letter of the 7th of December last, to Mr. Strang- 
ways, which I have lately had under my consideration. It 
appears by that letter, you took steps with respect to Mr. 
Bell's voyage in the Vixen, which, I regret to say, were in my 
opinion wholly incompatible with your public duty as a 
diplomatic servant of the Crown ; and I should not think 
myself properly performing my own duty, if, after a knowledge 
of such circumstance, I were to continue you in the situation 
which you now hold.' 5 

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON TO MR. URQUHART. 

(Extract) "June 20, 1838. 

" You say in your letter that having up to the moment of 
your conversation with me considered the voyage of the Vixen 
as a Government measure, and as one which I looked upon 
with peculiar interest and with great expectation of national 
benefit, you are naturally surprised beyond expression at the 
views which I then expressed to you upon that subject. Now, 
I think that I may be justified in expressing, in my turn, some 
considerable surprise at this passage in your letter ; because 
w 7 hile, on the one hand, I am quite sure that nothing which I 
ever said or did could justify you or any other man in form- 
ing the opinion which in this passage you express of my view 
of the voyage of the Vixen ; on the other hand, my private 
letter to you, dated 10th of March, 1837, and which you 
received before you left Constantinople, and therefore long 
before our conversation in Downing Street, was calculated, as 
it seems to me, to have effectually dispelled any illusion 
which other persons might have created in your mind on 
this point." 

MR. URQUHART TO MR. BACKHOUSE. 

(Extract) "July ZQtk, 1838. 

" Who were the parties who could have misled me ? The 
only persons with whom I had communication upon this 
subject were, his late Majesty ; Sir Herbert Taylor, his 
Majesty's Private Secretary ; Mr. M'Neill, Envoy to Persia ; 
Mr. Strang ways. Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs ; and 
(by letter) Lord Ponsonby : added to the positive approval 



328 



THE DANUBE AND ETJXINE. 



of Lord Palmerston of my own reports and published papers 
on the subject, and of ' every word ' that had appeared in the 
Portfolio. If Lord Palmerston has considered my conduct in 
this respect as reprehensible, I have made no remonstrance 
against such decision ; but when his Lordship sanctions in 
Lord Ponsonby the active and official approval of an enter- 
prise, and punishes me for encouragement of a private kind 
given to it — when he punishes me in the month of March 
for what he pretends to approve of in the month of January 
— when he denounces me as a traitor to my count ry, while 
he continues his favour to his own confidential agent (Mr. 
S rangways), who has commended the act so denounced, and 
volunteered his testimony against any misconstruction of my 
conduct respecting it — then do I assert, not indeed that I 
am unjustly treated, but that the principles of Eastern policy, 
of which I was the advocate, and which had previously 
triumphed in London, were to be overthrown through my 
disgrace. Lord Palmerston was to escape from the conse- 
quences of the part he had taken therein by marking me as 
the guilty victim, by the sacrifice of which harmony was to 
be restored between his language in 1S36, and his deeds in 
1837- 

That no misunderstanding may possibly exist as to the 
value of the only allegation against me contained in Lord 
Palmerston's letter of June 20th — namely my encouragement 
given to Mr. J. Bell (which rests only on my own testimony, 
and on a private letter which ought neither to have been 
communicated nor used) — I must state that the step which 
I encouraged was entering the territory of the independent 
Circassians, in violation, of course, of any supposed Russian 
regulations ; that offence, if offence it be, has been over and 
over again repeated, and as often approved by his Lordship. 

In 183-i, I, confidentially employed by the British Govern- 
ment, with the sanction and by the advice of His Majesty's 
ambassador at Constantinople, did so enter that country. I 
was not censured for so doing, but on the contrary my con- 
duct was approved, my views adopted, and I was advanced 
in a manner that extraordinary services and important views 
could only justify. In 1S36. Mr. Stewart, as alluded to in 
Lord Palmerston's letter, admitting my statement on the 
subject, was sent into the same country, equally in defiance 
of all Russian regulations, by Lord Ponsonby. At the end 
of the same year Mr. Bell and the Vixen were sent by the 



NOTES 



329 



joint concurrence of the Foreign Office, and of the ambas- 
sador at Constantinople. After the capture of the Vixen, 
Mr. Strang way s wrote to me to get some person fitted to 
describe Circassia, and to send him to that country, which 
communication has been in Lord Palmerston's possession 
since September 20th, without leading to the removal of that 
officer. Finally, Lord Ponsonby has held communication 
with that country through individuals sent there by himself 
(one of them a discarded servant of my own, of the name of 
Andrew, who has recently been accused of abstracting the 
correspondence of the Englishmen in Circassia), in equal 
violation of the Eegulations under which the illegality of the 
voyage has been assumed, and English property confiscated. 

To this letter there was an elaborate reply from Mr, 
Backhouse, but no statement or inference here contained was 
impugned. 

Statement of Lord Palmerston in the House ox Commons, 
March 1st, 1848 :— 

" In those circumstances a certain Mr. Bell imagined that 
he would take a shipful of salt to Circassia, and ' try the 
question. 3 The Bussian Government had issued an edict 
prohibiting the importation of salt, or I believe rather 
generally establishing a blockade against the coast; and Mr. 
Bell determined to take a shipful of salt, of which the Cir- 
cassians were greatly in need, and to see what Bussia would 
do; intending, if the ship were seized, to demand restitution 
from the Government, and that being refused by Bussia, that 
Great Britain should send a fleet to the Baltic, endeavour to 
destroy the Bussian arsenals — in short, that there should be 
a regular ' set-to ' between this country and Bussia. I have 
been accused frequently of being too warlike ; but I own 
that my courage did not rise to that point. I did not fancy 
it. Not liking the matter, I gave to Mr. Bell the answers 
which were published — which I knew very well would be 
published next day in the papers — which were charged with 
being evasive, and like some answers which one gives in this 
House, when one's official duties prevent him gratifying the 
curiosity of an hon. Member. However, the result icas that 
Mr. Bell teas so discouraged that he gave up all inte?itions of 
going to the Circassian coast. He had gone to Constantinople ; 



330 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



but he was warned by Lord Ponsonby, our Ambassador, to 
take care not to violate the Bussian blockade. He did then 
give up his intention of going to Circassia. All of a sudden, 
however, he took it up again. His ship was seized by a 
Russian cruiser." 



Note II. 

THE EASTERN POLICY OF ENGLAND AND 
FRANCE. 

FltOU THE BARON V. PROKESCH, PRESIDENT OF THE 
GERMANIC DIET. 

Note to p. 303. 

M. V. Prokesch is not only the first diplomatist of Austria 
but the first writer, perhaps, I might say, the first German 
writer. His works not being accessible to the English or 
French public, I subjoin some extracts from the third volume 
of his Memoirs, in which he has recorded his contemporary 
opinion of that Treaty by which England and France first 
bound themselves to concert their "policy M with Russia. The 
details connected with the Battle of Navarino well deserved 
to be recalled. 

It is astonishing that an individual who has so extensively 
used the Press should not be disqualified for the highest 
official stations in Austria, and that in the diplomatic branch ; 
and the more so when we consider the nature of his works, 
which are not confined within the pale of the abstruser 
orders of literature, and are addressed and adapted to the 
most popular portion of the Public. They are not the out- 
pourings of a fertile imagination, nor the accumulation of an 
unquiet and industrious spirit. Seldom, indeed, is the didactic 
tone assumed, but throughout there is evidence of a mind 
at work for an end, to advance which labour is undergone, 
incidents are accumulated, and pictures drawn, to serve as 



NOTES. 



331 



vehicles for thought. He spares no toil, and will write a 
volume to slip in a phrase. The end in view is neither a 
political purpose nor a speculative theory ; it is to urge the 
mind of his reader to a useful effort, and, himself above them, 
his war is with the doctrines of our times and the fallacies 
of our opinion. He has not hesitated to enter upon the 
transactions in which he has borne so prominent a part, and 
on the interests and objects of the governments of Europe. 
He has not disguised what it was important for the nations 
of Europe to know ; he is indeed cautious but not reserved. 

M. V. Prokesch has been able throughout a long and 
laborious life to stand by himself and to suffice for himself ; 
he has advanced from station to station in the government 
considered the most umbrageous at home and servile abroad, 
whilst incessantly addressing himself to the public and avow- 
ing opinions in reference to Eussia which severally must 
have excluded him from public service in England or in Trance. 
This in itself is a fact, second in importance to none of those 
that have agitated the world in latter times ; it is a flag of 
hope held out at a moment when the few who see are crushed 
by despondency ; Austria is not lost when she possesses such 
a man and dares to trust him ; Europe is saved for the pre- 
sent, at least when the policy of any government is directed 
by a man combining capacity and character. 

Baron von ProkescA's Memoirs, vol. iii, p. 538. 

Smyrna, Oct. M, 1827, 

I have, in judging of the future, invariably found that the 
simple, clear, immediate view, the first impression, carried the 
day over the best planned scheme for which I have not unfre- 
quently been tempted to give up my original plan. In the 
same manner, unless I am altogether mistaken, England and 
France are miserably deceiving themselves and are working 
out the plans of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg. They say 
they are binding Eussia, and see not that it is they who are 
bound. They desire to prevent Eussia's making war, so they 
endeavour to gain for her objects. I fear that even Greece, 
the immediate pretext, but in reality a subordinate matter, 
will not be the gainer, but will deeply rue the Treaty which it 



332 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



has received with such rejoicing. The news of Catmmg's 
death reached us on Sept. 7th. . . . Russia will not rejoice 
a little thereat, for it makes her success the more certain. 

Smyrna, Nov. 3d, 1827. 

The London Treaty has led to becoming results. There is 
now only the Russian war remaining. How greatly will the 
crime and madness of the battle of Navarin be praised in 
Europe. How loud will be the accusations and regrets, and 
how completely will men's eyes be opened. Public opinion 
is usually led by passion, never by reason, and rarely even 
by instinct. . . . Every word that appears in the European 
papers about the battle is false. The battle was necessary as 
winter was coming on, and the west coast of the Morea is, 
to say the least, an inconvenient cruising ground. It was 
necessary since ordinary means of coercion were found 
insufficient, and because the influence of public opinion was 
making itself dreaded. Codrington was led by ambition to 
commit this crime. Rigny looked only at the English, and 
felt himself a Frenchman. Heiden alone acted as a man who 
knew what he was about. 

As a pretext for the battle, the Admirals on the 19th 
demanded the immediate return of the Turkish Fleet to 
Constantinople, and of the Egyptian to Alexandria, as well 
as the cessation of all acts of hostility within the Peninsula. 
The grounds given were, that Ibrahim had broken his word 
in making the attempt to supply Patras with provisions, and 
that therefore further security was necessary. That Patras 
had been attacked by the Greeks during the truce enforced by 
the allies, and that the Turkish Chief sailed from one Turkish 
haven to another, went for nothing. Equally little did it 
avail that Ibrahim was in the interior, and that his officers 
asked for time to consult him. Hamilton had found Kiaja- 
Bey fighting with the Mainotes in the Gulph of Corinth ; he 
ordered him to desist — the Turk obeyed, yet even this was 
used as a pretext. Under pretence of taking in water on the 
19th an English frigate was sent into the harbour to observe 
the position of the Turkish fleet ; and on the 20th the whole 
allied fleet with Codrington's ship the Asia leading, sailed in 
and took up a position within a pistol shot of the Turkish 
anchors, each vessel having a spring on the cable. The 
Turks anticipating no attack, but at most a menace, and 



NOTES. 



333 



determined to give no excuse for hostilities, made no 
opposition. Their land batteries which might have disputed 
the entrance, were silent as the ships. When all was ready 
the frigate Dartmouth ordered two Turkish fireships to raise 
their anchors and move to a greater distance — The Com- 
mander replied, that it was the custom in every harbour in 
the World that the ship last arrived should anchor where 
there was room and should not disturb ships already moored. 
The Dartmouth threatened to cut their cables — The Turk 
replied he would not endure it without exercising his right 
of firing on the boat that attempted it. The boat was sent 
the fire ship opened upon it with musquetry, the Dartmouth 
replied with cannon — Codrington gave the signal, and the 
attack began along the whole line. . \ . The Turks fought 
with desperation, in spite of their confined position, their 
being surprised, and their want of men, besides they had only 
three line of battle ships against ten. The action began at 
2 1 — by sunset the destruction was complete. The Armida 
had taken three frigates, on board of which the Turkish 
wounded and prisoners were placed, but prisoners made in 
peace being looked upon as an embarrassment, orders were 
given to sink the three frigates, which was instantly done. 
During the night the Turks destroyed many of their own 
ships. The rising sun of the 2 1st shone upon wrecks and 
corpses, the remains of three line battle ships, three first-rate 
frigates and eighteen second-rate, the corvettes and six 
smaller vessels. The first blossoms of the Cairo schools, the 
Egyptian youth, was destroyed. The victors were embarrassed 
by no prisoners. 

The news of this philanthropic battle reached us on the 
27th. We warned the Pasha to prepare for the burst of fury 
which this treason would produce amongst the Turks both of 
town and country. The immediate effect was terrific, 
thousands of Christians, men, women, and children hurrying 
in wild panic to the ships, fearing that the 80,000 Turks in 
the city would rise to avenge their countrymen and their 
faith. The panic was felt through all Asia Minor, but no 
outrage occurred, and we observed with wonder and respect 
the bearing and self-restraint of the Turks. 

Poor Greece, only a miracle can save thee! Abuse of 
power, bold arrogance, and the trampling under foot of all 
rights, — these are midwives which can bring nought but a 



334 THE DANUBE AND EXUINE. 



slave into the world. The independence which you had 
neither virtue nor courage to gain for yourself is lost for ever. 
Instead of a Turkish you will find yourself a Russian province, 
and a thousand times, with tears in your eyes and without 
hope in your heart, you will look back with regret to your 
former state. Europe looks on at your destruction and claps 
her hands, for by the bills posted on the walls the play is 
called " The Ekeedom of Greece." 



S35 



CHAPTER III. 

T) % eaty with Austria for the Free Navigation of 
the Danube. 

When the first cargo which arrived under it was seized, 
this Treaty was discovered to be the " most extraordinary 
proceeding in the history of this or any other country."* 
Yet, to the sagacious mind of an Ex- Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer the perusal of the subjoined clause ought to have 
suggested that conclusion long before. 

u All Austrian vessels proceeding from the Harbours of the 
Danube as far as Galatz, inclusive, as well as their cargoes, 
may sail direct for the ports of Great Britain, and of all other 
possessions of her Britannic Majesty, as if they came direct 
from the Harbours of Austria ; and, reciprocally, all English 
vessels, as well as their cargoes, shall be admitted into the 
Austrian Harbours, and depart therefrom with the same im- 
munities as Austrian vessels." 

If this age is modest as to diplomacy, it is somewhat con- 
fident in its geography. Was there no " Penny Cyclopaedia" 
in the House? 

Below Galatz the Danube flows between Turkish and 
Eussian territories ; above Galatz it flows through Turkish 
territory, up to the frontiers of Hungary, where the Iron 
Gate arrests the upward navigation as completely as if the 
height and foam of Niagara interposed. Neither above nor 
below Galatz is there an Austrian port. 

This is a "Reciprocity Treaty," granting the faculty of 
importing the produce of their own territory, and the non- 
enumerated articles, the produce of other countries of Europe, 

* Mr. Hemes. 



336 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



on the payment of no higher duties than British vessels ; but 
in this case the privilege is to extend to all ports of the 
Danube, as far as Galatz, that is, to ports not Austrian ; yet 
the treaty is with Austria, and admits to these harbours 
English vessels as Austrian. Every man connected with 
commerce or politics knew that a Reciprocity Treaty could 
not have effect in neutral territory ; but, to their minds, 
" the mistake was too gross to be committed in a Treaty," 
and credence grew from incredulity. The world is now at 
least six thousand years old ; but there has never yet ap- 
peared, maturity such as this, of contemptuous invention — 
dotage such as this, of decrepit belief. 

When people say that a thing is extraordinary, they would 
generally imply that to them it is incomprehensible. When, 
therefore, after the announcement from the throne 01 this 
Treaty and that with Turkey, they believe it to be deep as it 
was dark, it was only that they feared that any one should 
suspect they had not fathomed it. After a time, however, 
an adventurous spirit arose among the leaders of the people, 
and they approached the stream. They stripped and plunged 
in, and each in turn, baffled by his own lightness, rebounded 
to the surface, and back to the bank, dry. The darkly- 
rolling Danube, the while, bore on to futurity, the mystery 
in its troubled breast. 

The first who rushes in, of course, is Lord Aberdeen, who, 
on the 8th of February, 1839, sought to find "how under 
this Treaty British vessels could be admitted as Austrian 
into Turkish ports ? " 

A voice like Lord Melbourne's answers from the waters : 

" TJiat advantage must be procured by another Treaty'' 

I am ashamed, yet constrained, to explain. 

The professed object was to admit into England Austrian 
vessels bringing Turkish produce from Turkish ports on the 
same terms as if they brought Austrian produce from 
Austrian ports, that could be effected only by a concurrent 
Treaty with Turkey, and a Bill in Parliament. Lord 
Aberdeen does not ask how this is to be effected, but some- 



TSEATY WITH AUSTRIA. 



337 



tiling else which lias no analogy to the Treaty, or the facts. 
Lord Melbourne's answer has as little to do with the question 
as the question with the Treaty. Indeed, he answers the 
question that Lord Aberdeen ought to have put, and for 
which he was prepared. However, the ex-foreign minister is 
perfectly satisfied, and believes he has suggested, or hastened, 
a negotiation to confer on English bottoms an Austrian 
nationality in Turkish ports ! 

Two days later in the Commons, Lord Palmerston states 
that the contemplated purposes are to be carried out by 
w mutual consent. 55 * If the omission of Treaties can be 
thus repaired, why treat ? 

"What mutual consent could bring Austrian vessels in 
against the Navigation Laws. Now the "Austrian harbours 55 
have dissolved into " Turkish ports." 

Sir Eobert Peel, after an eulogium on the document and 
negotiation inquires, " Whether another Treaty with Turkey 
was not necessary to secure the fall advantages of the 
Austrian Treaty ? 55 Lord Palmerston tells him that " Nothing 
of the kind is required, as to the footing on which ships 
coming from the Danube are to proceed, and no engagement 
necessary between Austria and England. Sir Eobert Peel is 
refractory, and again asks, " whether Turkey cannot impose 
restrictions on the Danube, unless she is a concurrent party in 
the Treaty? On Lord Palmerston 5 s emphatic "she cannot, 55 
the matter drops. 

But one unquiet spirit being settled, another rises : to the 
knight of Tamworth, succeeds the thane of Haddo. who 
rides fiercely in, and charges on his adversary unchivalrous 
tergiversation. But he himself has shifted his grounds, 
when he asserts that it is clear that without the concur- 
rence of the Po?ie t British vessels could not be received into 
Turkish ports. 

* " By mutual consent the benefits of the treaty are to be applied 
to the ships of either country corning not direct from the ports of the 
other country, but from any ports above Gralatz, that is, the Turkish 
dorts of the Danube." 

15 



338 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



Lord Melbourne's answer is worthy of a place in the 
British Museum. The Treaty was a bad Treaty, the stipu- 
ation a worthless stipulation, and he apprehended that 
nothing repugnant to this view had been said in the other 
House ; it was, in fact, a freak of Austria, who wished to do 
something impossible, and which the English Government, 
for peace and quietness, consented to.* So that it was only 
a schoolboy-romp with the Austrian plenipotentiaries, and a 
practical joke on the Queen, the Opposition, and the mer- 
chants of the Danube. 

At least here is the avowal of Austria's anxiety to do 
something in reference to the Danube which England had 
frustrated. Lord Melbourne would make it appear that this 
was a Treaty with Turkey, and that the other Treaty tc 
allow British vessels to enter as Austrian into Turkish ports, 
was therefore still necessary. Lord Palmerston declares it 
was not ; that everything was to be settled by " mutual 
consent." All this while no one perceives that the whole 
question lies in the state of the law at home. They are 
bandied about from post to pillar, from Austria to Turkey, 
and from Turkey to Austria, and back again into the river, 
in order that they may not see that they have got before them, 
a Mutilated Treaty. 

The shippers of the Danube dive also ; they get through 
the foam and surge of "Austrian" and "Turkish ports," of 
" Turkish prohibitions to the navigation of the Danube ; " and 
opening their eyes in the clear water, perceive what the 
gladiatorial intellects of the British senate had never dreamt 

* <{ That the stipulation complained of was an Austrian stipula- 
tion — that it was prepared by the Austrian Plenipotentiary, and 
insisted upon by him — that those engaged in the negotiation on the 
part of this country saw that it was liable to this objection ; yet, as it 
was the wish of the Austrian Government, the stipulation was 
inserted. Therefore there was no question but that there was a sti- 
pulation to do a certain thing upon the part of Austria^ which 
Austria had no power to do, and therefore which was not binding 
upon Austria, and he apprehended that nothing repugnant to this 
had been stated in the other House." — Lord Melbourne. 



TEEATY WITH AUSTRIA. 



339 



of, — a relaxation of the Navigation Laws. Scarcely had six 
weeks elapsed from the announcement from the throne, and 
the skirmishing in the Houses of Parliament, when the seizure 
at Gloucester of a cargo of Turkish produce, shipped at a 
Turkish port, in an Austrian bottom, reveals the hoax. 

Bid then, the Austrian shippers misconceive the Treaty ? 
Not in the least. But into whose mind could it have then 
entered that the English Government should set down as a 
stipulation in a Treaty, a concession which they never made ? 

Now (25th of March), Lord Aberdeen has discovered 
" that the advantage of the Treaty cannot be enjoyed without 
a relaxation of the Navigation Laws." Lord Melbourne 
" admits " that this relaxation ought to have been made ; 
" confesses " that he cannot tell why it has not ; is " not 
able " even to ascertain what the reason has been — for Mr. 
Poulett Thomson is in Canada. But he " supposes " " that 
as negotiations were on foot with Turkey" he did not think 
fit to apply to Parliament " twice upon the same subject" — 
And again the subject drops. 

The vessel is released under a nominal fine, and the 
leaders of the Opposition are satisfied that matters are put 
straight ; but again there is a difference between them and 
the shippers of the Danube. They will no longer trust to an 
English Treaty, or take the explanations of an English minister, 
and consequently no more cargoes of grain are shipped from 
the obnoxious Danube. A powerful opposition, meanwhile, 
believe that they had taken steps to realise the "full 
advantages " of the measures which they had applauded to 
the skies. 

This transaction is the counterpart of the one we shall 
presently have to examine with Turkey. Eussia, indeed, 
did not prevent, by menace, the exportation of Austrian 
produce ; but she stopped its passage through the Danube. 

Austrian Ministers were not apprehensive for their lives ; 
but they were hampered by other considerations.* Like 

* The highest personages had pensions, and influential ladies were 
in debt to the Czar. 



340 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



Turkey, Austria, holding England to be the antagonist of 
Kussia,* applied to her, wishing that the measure should 
come as her proposal. Prince Metternich and Count Kolo- 
wrat adopted precisely the same course as Achmet Pasha and 
Perteff Pasha. They had the co-operation of the ambassador, 
Lord Beauvale, and, through him, of his brother, the Prime 
Minister; the Foreign Minister found himself, as in the 
Turkish Treaty, placed under the necessity of accepting 
ostensibly a project which he was resolved secretly to frus- 
trate. 

Austria, to remove every possibility of delay or miscon- 
ception, offered to place her interests in the negotiation with 
Turkey, in the hands of the English negotiators ; and the 
gentleman who was to have charge of it was hurriedly 
despatched to Milan, where the Emperor then was with 
Prince Metternich, the Treaty being to be sent after him the 
next or the following day. It was delayed and altered. 

* On the person of Latour was found a letter to M. Prokesch, 
dated Athens, 30th of August, 1848, which shows this delusion was 
not universal at Vienna : — " What makes me most uneasy are our 
unfortunate relations with regard to Hungary. I think we ought 
not to deceive ourselves as to the complete separation of that country, 
and it would be one of the greatest blunders possible to furnish the 
Hungarians with the means of effecting their object. I explain that 
state of affairs by the co-operation of Esterhazy with Lord Palmer- 
ston } and by the influence which the latter exercises with us. Now, I 
have for years considered Lord Palmerston our most decided enemy, 
end still consider him to be so ; and to trust to England, as long as 
that man guides her policy, appears to me an anachronism scarcely 
to be equalled. . . . The Eussians gain ground in the Danubian 
Principahties. We have (hi the year 1829), with an inactivity bor- 
dering on treason, allowed the mouth of the Danube to fall into 
their hands, and that at the very moment when the position of the 
Eussian army was such that the Cabinet of St. Petersburg readily 
would have listened to any proposal. Perhaps even now we shall 
allow ourselves to be duped by phrases, and we shall assist the Eus- 
sians in estabhshing then' paramount influence as far as the Drave 
and Save. The Porte resists, but there is no one to back her. 
Trance follows in the train of England $ England is in understanding 
ioith Russia." 



TREATY TVITH AUSTRIA. 



341 



There was no longer to be negotiation with Turkey ; and, 
consequently, the clause respecting Turkish vessels, which 
belonged to a tripartite Treaty, remained as futile and absurd 
as Lord Melbourne described it to be. Great indignation 
was expressed by Prince Metternich, who, as I have it on the 
the authority of the negotiator, did not fail to intimate to 
Lord Melbourne his suspicions of the quarter whence the blow 
was dealt. Having failed to obtain the support of England, 
he from that day resigned himself, and signed with Russia a 
Treaty for the interruption of the navigation of the Danube. 

From the seizure of the " Vallaco," Parliament slumbered 
for sixteen months. At that period Mr. Hemes rudely 
disturbed its equanimity, by proposing a vote of censure, in 
the form of an address to the Crown, imploring her Majesty 
to put an end to such proceedings as these on the part of her 
Ministers. He demanded " Why a Treaty had been signed 
in violation of the law, or why the law had not been altered 
to suit the Treaty ?" Mr. Labouchere could only answer on 
the 6th July, 1S40, that "Mr. Poulett Thomson was in 
Canada.' 5 But he, too, has his supposition; it differs from 
Lord Melbourne's. Some discussions, "he supposes," were 
going on at the time, which " it would not be expedient to 
publish; he had consulted with the Secretary for Foreign 
Affairs, wlw had agreed with him, that it was a subject which 
ought to be brought under the consideration of Parliament by 
the Government I" 

Lord Palmerston— he was not in Canada, the Treaty was 
his, not Mr. Poulett Thomson's, he was the responsible 
person, and on the spot, and in the house — no one has 
troubled him with questions. He rises at the end of the 
debate, after the opposition had lost the thread and had 
swallowed " Mr. P. Thomson in Canada his tasK is easv, 
and is limited to sneering at the traffic of the West of the 
Euxine, as in 1836 he had scoffed at that of the East. By 
the Treaty, he informed the house, Austria was precluded 
from seeking, or asking from Turkey any further privilege for 
Austrian vessels than were enjoyed by British vessels in Turkish 



342 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



ports ! Austria, of course, must have been trying to over- 
reach England. " It was now said that another Treaty with 
Eussia would be necessary to prevent the Turkish Government 
being moved by any other influence to exclude our vessels from 
the Danube" The question was the exclusion of British ships 
from Turkish ports, and Austrian vessels from Turkish ports, 
and Turkish vessels from her own ports — by Eussia ; but it 
seems, that on this, as on all other occasions, it is Turkey 
who, according to Lord Palmerston, is the aggressor.* He 
continues, cc but according to the old Treaty between England 
and Turkey, British ships were entitled to enter the Turkish 
ports of the Danube, and as to their proceeding to the higher 
partoi the Danube that was secured by the Treaty of Vienna." 
So that the Treaty of Vienna does apply to the Danube, but 
not to its harbours ! 

This assertion of the rights which Eussia had infringed is 
adduced as an argument against taking any steps to maintain 
them — is a denial of the very facts ; for to assert that no 
measures were requisite to maintain British rights was to 
assert that no obstruction to British trade existed. What 
would have been said if Eussia had argued, " You have no 
reason to complain of my quarantine establishments at the 
mouth of the Danube, of my visiting your vessels, or exact- 
ing a toll from them, because you have free right of naviga- 
tion in this river, by your Treaties with Turkey, and by the 
Treaty of Vienna?" An English Minister can say for her 
what she cannot say for herself; he can do for her by a word 
what all her armies could not effect. „ 

Lord Palmerston admitted that the Treaty of Vienna 
applied to the Danube only when he could declare that 
Treaty null and of no effect ; a Treaty violated in one point 
is violated in all ; and he admitted that it was violated by 
the confiscation of Cracow, — an act which he then explained 
by England's physical inability to prevent it. Austria, 

* Speaking of the war of 1828 he says, " I say that Turkey had 
violated her treaties with Russia, and had been induced to commit 
acts of aggression against Russia." — 23d February, 1848, 



TREATY WITH AUSTRIA. 343 



repulsed and betrayed in her attempted federation with 
England in reference to the Danube, had joined in the con- 
fiscation of Cracow. Russia was thus doubly in flagrant hos- 
tility against England ; yet, at the mouths of the Danube, 
there were soundings for line-of-battle ships. It was nine 
days after this declaration that she signed a Treaty sent from 
St. Petersburgh (15 July, 1840) which stipulates the even- 
tual occupation of the Turkish capital by a Russian military 
and naval force ; the Foreign Secretary justified this step by 
his " entire conviction " of Russia's good faith, and the 
identity of her policy and interests with those of Great 
Britain. 

But the consequence of the act which more particularly 
concerns us is the Danube Treaty between Austria and 
Russia. It stipulates that those vessels only are to enter 
which belong to countries " having a right to navigato the 
Black Sea," and who "are at peace with Russia."* In 
1822, she in like manner claimed the right of converting 
the North Pacific into a mare clausum : the pretension was 
indeed abandoned, but only in consequence of the undiplo- 
matic resolution of the Americans to arm their trading 
vessels. She has obtained the exclusion of the men-of-war 
of all European countries from the Black Sea : the next 
step is to make it a mare clausum also for merchantmen. As 
regards any resistance from the Western Powers she has 
nothing to apprehend ; there remains to dare nothing more 
than what she has done. She has baffled every attempt of 
the House of Commons, of the Sovereign of England, of the 
Government of Austria, to open the river which she has 
closed. She has done so without having to apply force, or 
to utter threats. Her preponderance and conquests are 
secured on the prostration of character and honour in the 

* Treaty of the Danube between Austria and Russia, July, 1340 : 
— " Les navires niarchands Autrichiens, ainsi que ceux de toute autre 
nation, ayant le droit de navigeur dans la mer noire, et qui est en 
paix avec la Russie, pourront entrer librement dans les embouchures 
navigables de Danube, le remonter, le deseendre, &c." 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



Parliament of England — a securer ground of dominion than 
any strength of her own. 

The difficulty of credence constitutes here the difficulty of 
sight : people cannot trust their very eyes. But the same 
process has been over and over again repeated in the Treaties 
proposed with Persia, Turkey, the small states of Italy, 
Naples, and Prance. In respect to the latter Lord Palmerston, 
on the 1st of March, 1848, coupled it with that of Turkey, 
and attributed to me its " details." The general bearing of 
all coincided with that with Turkey, — on that the battle had 
been fought, and that carried, the plan of a general league of 
free commercial intercourse followed as a matter of course : 
I had no more than this to do with either the Prench, 
Austrian, or Neapolitan Treaties : I was, however, conversant 
with them in every stage, from the beginning to the end. 
Well, the Treaty with Prance was a matter of the gravest 
importance, it opened the prospect of traffic to the amount 
of many millions yearly. The gentleman selected for the 
negotiation refused to go Paris, unless on the assurance that 
Lord Palmerston would not be allowed to interfere; he 
received that assurance, and it availed him nothing. All this 
has been alleged in Parliament,* and Lcrd Palmerston is 

* "Mr. Porter, then of the Board of Trade, has lately been promoted 
to a higher office. I presume, therefore, that he enjoys the confidence 
of the colleagues of the noble Lord. Now, on this gentleman's being 
selected in 1840, — before the Treaty of July, — by the then colleagues 
of the noble lord, in consequence of his connection with the Board 
of Trade, to negotiate a treaty of commerce with France, Mr. Porter 
informed those ministers that he was confident that, whatever treaty 
he might negotiate for such a purpose, would be interfered with by 
the noble lord, — and either brought to nothing, or, as in the case of 
the Turkish treaty, perverted to the ruin of its objects. Mr. Porter, 
therefore, demanded and obtained this condition from the then 
ministry — that the treaty should be kept out of the Foreign Office ; 
and that he should not be called upon to report to, or to receive 
any instructions whatever from the noble lord, or his department, 
in the conduct of that negotiation. On the faith of that condition 
alone he undertook the mission. It is further stated, on the same 
gentleman's authority, and in the same document, that he brought 



TREATY WITH AUSTRIA. 



345 



silent; had it been groundless, nothing could have been more 
easy than a refutation ? 

Thus were cast away at once the good-will and co-opera- 
tion of the Austrian Government, which while setting free 
the Danube, would have unlocked the resources of the Pro- 
vinces, and, at a time when restrictive barriers were raised 
against them in the West, have afforded an entrance to 
British goods into Germany. On the 1st of June, 1829, 
Lord Palmerston declared an " Austro -Turkish alliance " 
to be " dangerous " to England ; in 1838, he substituted for 
it an Austro-Russian. 

But the Treaty was to have been tripartite, including 
Turkey, so that the three Governments would have been 
united in a league for mutual defence, their common shield 
would have been planted on the Pruth, the link uniting the 
Principalities with Turkey would have been strengthened, 
the attempts of Russia to implant her influence foiled, and, 
under the shadow of this security, those resources would be 
developed, which in course of time would have quietly removed 
Russia from her menacing position as an ambitious Power. 

Considering what England's conduct has been, how won- 
derful that such a plan should have emanated from its own 
breast, how much more so, that having so emanated, its own 
Minister had to thwart it, and most of all, that he shoidd 
have been successful in doing so by the ignorance of the 
Parliamentary Leaders, of the commonest geographic facts, 
and of the application of the Navigation Laws. Though 
Russia has her all at stake, by that ignorance alone has she 
saved her venture. 

the matter to a happy conclusion — and that in spite of the pre- 
cautions he had taken, and the conditions he had exacted, that 
treaty was at length set aside by the noble lord. There is no doubt 
that the direct act of the noble lord occasioned this failure. I state 
this on the authority of Mr. Porter, and I refer to the fact of his 
recent appointment, as showing, that notwithstanding that decla- 
ration was made in 1841, the noble lord has not induced his 
colleagues to disgrace that gentleman." — Speech of Mr, Anstey^ 
23d Feb. 1848. 

15 § 



346 THE DANUBE AND EUXIXE. 



Still the configuration of the soil admitted of her being 
cut out practically ; the ancient mouth of the Danube stands 
in reference to the present one, much as the Eyder does 
to the Sound. To this subject I have devoted a chapter; 
it is part of the history of the past, if too late as suggesting 
measures for the future. 



347 



CHAPTEE IV. 

Apology for Bussia. 

As these pages are passing through the press an incident 
of a very extraordinary nature has occurred. The Minister 
who has so long managed Europe from the British Foreign 
Office, but whom it has been judged prudent or expedient to 
exclude from that Office, has suddenly resumed its functions 
in the House of Commons ; the occasion is the shutting up 
of English vessels in the Danube, which he takes advantage 
of to resume what he himself has done in reference to the 
Danube, to explain the motives of Eussia, and to exhibit in 
his fashion the results. To this conversation I may well 
devote a chapter, seeing that it is itself a monument of 
brass. 

Navigation of the Danube. 

House of Commons, July 7, 1853. 

Mr. Liddell asked, whether any instructions had been 
sent out by Her Majesty's Government to inquire into the 
case of British vessels at present detained in the Danube, 
owing to the imperfect state of the navigation of that river ; 
and whether, in the event of hostilities with Eussia before 
such ships could be liberated, a sufficient force would be sent 
out to that part to prevent their falling into the hands of 
hostile powers ? 

Lord Palmeeston. — The recent obstruction of the navi- 
gation of the Sulina channel of the Danube has been 
caused by the accidental circumstances of the waters of 
the river leaving overflowed and spread over the banks, 
and so far diminished the force of the current as to increase 
the quantity of mud on the bar. This particular inconve- 



343 THE DANUBE AND EUXIXE. 



nience is temporary, and will no doubt cease when its 
cause has also ceased ; but I arn bound to say that, for many 
years past, the Government have had reason to complain of 
the neglect of the Government of Eussia to perform its duties 
as possessor of the territory of which the delta of the Danube 
is composed, and to maintain the channel of the Sulina in 
an efficient navigable state. (Hear, hear.) It was my duty, 
when Secretary for Foreign Affairs, to make f requent repre- 
sentations to the Russian Government on the subject ; and 
Eussia, although she always admitted that it was her duty 
to do so — admitting that which we asserted — that as Eussia 
thought fit, by virtue of the Treaty of Adrianople, to possess 
herself of the mouths of the Danube, that great watercourse 
and highway of nations, leading into the centre of Germany, 
it was her duty to see that that great highway was maintained 
and made accessible (according to the Treaty of Vienna) to 
the commerce of all nations. (Hear, hear.) Eussia never 
disputed that statement, and she asserted always that she was 
employed in using means to remedy the grievance. The 
grievance was this — that while these mouths of the Danube 
formed part of the Turkish territory, there was maintained a 
depth of 16 feet on the bar, whereas, by the neglect of the 
Russian authorities the depth had diminished to 11 feet, and 
even those 11 feet were reduced to a small and narrow chan- 
nel from obstructions on the side, from sand-banks, and from 
vessels wrecked and sunk (when sunk ?) and allowed to re- 
main there, so that it was difficult for any vessel to pass, 
except in calm weather and with a skilful pilot. (Hear.) 
We were also aware that there were local interests that tended 
to thwart what we believed to be the intentions of the Eussian 
Government. In the first place there was rivalship on the 
part of Odessa, where there existed a desire to obstruct the 
export of produce by the Danube, and to direct it, if possible, 
by way of Odessa. (Hear.) There were also those little 
local interests which arise from the profits that bargemen and 
lightermen, and persons of that class, make by unloading the 
steamers that come down the Danube, so as to enable them 



APOLOGY FOE RUSSIA. 



349 



to pass the bar, reloading them again outside the bar. 
These local feelings and interests must have obstructed, with' 
out their being aicare of it, the good intentions of the Eussian 
Government, for they always promised they would take the 
most effectual measures. They said they would send a steam- 
dredge to carry away all the obstructions on the bar. The 
steam-dredge came, and the steam-dredge worked, but in two 
hours it was always put out of gear from some accident or 
other (a laugh), and they were obliged to go back to Odessa 
for repairs. (A laugh.) We recommended that the Eussian 
Government should pursue the method by which the Turkish 
Government kept the channel clear. That method was a very 
simple one. They required every vessel that went out of the 
Danube to tack to their stern a good iron rake, and by that 
means the passage of each vessel kept the channel clear, a 
depth of sixteen feet being constantly maintained. (Hear, 
hear.) I understand that, in addition to the representations 
I made when at the Foreign Office, constant and emphatic 
representations have been made to the Eussian Government 
on this subject, and I hope that that Government, while they 
break through those trammels which hitherto seem to have 
impeded their proper action, will see that it is a positive duty 
which they owe to Europe to maintain free and open that 
passage which, by force of arms, they obtained and which 
they believed themselves justified in retaining by the Treaty 
of Adrianople. (Hear, hear.) 

Mr. Liddell directed the attention of the noble lord to 
the second part of his question, which he had not answered. 

Lord Palmeeston. — I apprehend the question of the 
hon. gentleman relates to vessels which are now confined 
within the Danube and the Eussian territory for want of 
water. If, by any misfortune, which I cannot anticipate, war 
should arise between this country and Eussia, it ivould not 
be easy for a British ship of war to get up to those vessels 
without v-ater. (Laughter.) 



350 



CHAPTER Y. 
Canal of the Danube. 

The face of the earth presents no invitation to enterprise 
comparable to this. The facility of execution reduces to 
dimensions, not exceeding the resources of a parish, a work 
which would unite and enrich two quarters of the globe, 
which would add in security and wealth to the Empire, more 
than the conquest of a powerful kingdom. 

The Danube, running in nearly a straight line from the 
centre of Hungary, to within a few miles of the coast, sud- 
denly turns up to the North, and after a devious and intri- 
cate course, loses itself through shallower channels, amongst 
noxious marshes, in the Black Sea. Its useless wanderings 
extend a hundred and fifty miles, carrying it away from the 
direction of its usefulness, and bringing its navigation within 
autumn's fatal miasmata, and winter's icy chains. But the 
degrees of northing it attains exposes it to worse infection 
than that which strikes the flesh, and to more benumbing 
thrall than that of polar snows: the fabled dragon of the 
Pontine eastern coast, called to-day into virulent existence, 
guards and covers the inhospitable western shore; guards 
but to crush, covers to devour. Erom these to set free the 
kings of rivers — to open the floodgates of fertility on the 
heaven-blessed and man-cursed Dacian plains; to cast off 
— no, to escape from, — the hard dominion of lawless might 
and direr craft, such are the guerdons of a labour which 
every consideration of prudence recommends to the wonder- 
working ingenuity of our Phoenician times. 



CANAL OE THE DANUBE. 



351 



The exports of the countries watered by the Danube have 
to pass through the Bosphorus to reach their ultimate desti- 
nation, so that for commercial purposes, the river may be con- 
sidered a continuation of those straits and the Dardanelles : 
in former times these were considered a continuation of the 
Danube. The winding of the river lengthens the voyage 
two or three hundred miles but the difference in time has to 
be calculated by months. The marshy nature of the country 
through which the crews have to track the vessels to the ports 
of shipment, occasions loss of life ; and the accumulation of 
sand at the only mouth, necessitates the unloading of vessels 
of any size ; political and sanitary obstacles affect vessels 
of every class and nation, and consequently the freights are 
so much increased as to amount to a charge of fifty per cent, 
on the staple produce of the country. 

The proposed canal would bring the Danube straight out 
into the Euxine, clear of obstruction, fever, and violence ; and 
for all practical purposes, the inland countries of Transylvania 
Serbia, and Hungary would find themselves possessed of v a 
maritime coast. 

These countries have not yet gone through our laborious 
experience, in advancing from the pack-saddle to the cart, 
track-boat and railway waggon ; they have not made even 
the first step.* They would at once attain to the most perfect 
communications being destitute of the worst. By reference 
to the map, it will be seen, that the river passes along the 
great plain of Hungary, and afterwards takes the very centre 
of the rich alluvial lands, lying between the Carpathians and 
the Hsemus : these are the two largest and richest plains in 
Europe ; they are inhabited by 23,000,000 of an almost ex- 
clusively agricultural and pastoral population. The tributary 
Theisse traverses the centre of the plain lands of Hungary ; 
the Save comes down almost from the head of the Adriatic : 

* Yet springs are a Hungarian invention, first applied by Matthias 
Corvinus to relieve his gouty leg ; and from the village, where his 
essay was made, Cotzi, comes our "coach." The Turks still retain 
the original word. 



352 



THE DANUBE AND EUXIXE. 



various small confluents afford limited ranges of navigation 
transversely through "VYallachia ; and the Pruth and the 
Sereth bring down the produce of Moldavia : from the north 
and from the west all the communications converge to that 
point where the river is nearest to the Black Sea, and to 
Constantinople. The river in itself, and its chief confluents, 
present an inland navigation of two thousand miles; the stream 
is not rapid ; vessels, properly rigged and managed, might 
aid themselves greatly by sails, but in consequence of its 
being shut out from the sea every process is rude and bar- 
barous ; in fact, nothing has been done by art, to turn to 
account the incalculable resources of this region, or to profit 
by the unrivalled facilities of this river. 

It would be natural to suppose that this work has been 
hitherto prevented by obstructions such as rocks, mountain?, 
or sand. There is, however, nothing of the kind ; in fact the 
Danube anciently discharged its water through this channel, 
and all that is to be effected is the reopening of the ancient 
mouth, which is indeed through half its course at present 
filled with water. 

The western coast of the Black Sea is difficult and in- 
aboardable ; the canal w T ould in a great measure be de- 
prived of its utility if there were no port and no shelter for 
vessels at the point where it meets the sea ; but it so happens 
that at that very point a headland runs out to the east- 
ward, affording shelter. The ruins, no less than ancient 
reports, show that it has been a place of importance ; although 
by the shoaling of the waters, and the drifting of the sands, 
it is now of comparative insignificance, it might however at 
veiy little cost be made to serve for the purposes of the 
canal. 

In 1844 the Austrian government, in consequence of the 
interruption of its navigation for the larger vessels by the 
shoaling of the waters, and urged by the Austrian Lloyd 
Company, adopted this project, and sent engineers to make 
the necessary surveys, who estimated the expense at under 
half a million sterling. Negotiations were then opened with 



CAXAL OF THE DANUBE. 



353 



the Turkish government ; it was not unfavourably disposed, 
yet difficulties arose, and altercations ensued, which were 
carried to such a pitch that the representative of Austria 
threatened to demand his passports, and the project was 
finally abandoned. It is said, however, that Eussia expended 
£100,000 in bribes. 

The Austrian project was for a ship canal, to enable her 
large steamers to pass up the river ; the expense was con- 
sequently calculated on this scale ; the facilities afforded by 
the long lake of Carasou had to be neglected. However, 
it is by no means requisite that the canal should be for sea- 
going ships ; if for smaller vessels the expense would be 
reduced one half, and considering the matter from the point 
of view of Turkish interests, greater advantages would accrue, 
for a new class of vessels would arise fitted for sea and river 
navigation. These would penetrate high into the interior, 
and by short and rapid voyages transfer at small cost the 
produce of the Danubian provinces to Constantinople, 
which would thus become the centre of the grain trade of 
the South, a trade which carries many others along with 
it. These small vessels would also be capable of being 
tracked by their crews against the currents of the Bosphorus, 
where the large seagoing vessels are sometimes detained for 
months. 

The Black Sea contains immense maritime resources in 
timber, iron, hemp, pitch, at a quarter of the cost in Europe. 
Around its coasts there is a numerous maritime population 
to whom an impulse would be given by this new traffic, and 
a new class of vessels to be built. Meanwhile their enterprise 
would be let into the Danube and its confluents, where 
everything connected with navigation is of the rudest and 
most primitive description. Their barges being of the burden 
sometimes of 2000 tons are utterly unmanageable, the use 
of sails is scarcely known, and their oars are unfashioned 
pieces of wood. With all these advantages Turkey would 
obtain a nursery of native seamen, strengthening her in 
her weak point, and guarding her in her exposed quarter : 



354 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



in this respect alone the Danube canal would be to Ii t 
more important than Newfoundland to England. The 
Genoese, when they had their establishments at Galata and in 
the Crimea, had recourse to the same plan. They had a 
small class of vessels which navigated the Black Sea, and 
brought the corn down to Constantinople, whence the vessels 
from Europe carried it away. 

By restricting the dimensions of the canal, the purpose of 
the larger one would be more than attained, without its 
expense : works at Kustendji, would be no longer required, 
for these hoys would be able to enter at once the basin 
opening on a tideless sea. This coast is not exposed to 
the dangers of the other portions of the Euxine. Fogs, low 
invisible coasts, deceptive appearances, or a current setting 
on shore, render perilous every other frequented port, such as 
the mouths of the Danube, Odessa, Taganrog, and the 
entrance of the Bosphorus. The current here sets off shore; 
the land is not low, and is well defined; against the prevailing 
westerly and northerly winds there is shelter; with a 
southerly wind there is no danger in making the coast ; the 
holding ground is good. At the present rate of exportation, 
2000 of these craft would be required, making five or six trips 
in the year; they would employ 15,000 seamen. The enter- 
prise would thus be reduced to very manageable proportions, 
and the character of the workmanship brought nearer to the 
level of what the country can supply. 

We may then be safe in setting down the cost as not 
above £2000 per mile for the cutting, or £1000 for dredg- 
ing, banking, pile driving, fee. on the Lake of Carasou, which 
would bring the expense under £60,000, for the line it- 
self; the entire expenditure would be amply covered by 
£200,000. 

Everything consumed by 10,000,000 of people, every 
article produced on 60,000 square miles of arable land, 
would pass through it. A considerable proportion of what 
is consumed by other 16,000,000 of people and the larger 
amount of the exported produce of their 120,000 square 



CAXAL OF THE DANUBE. 



355 



miles would also pass through it ; with this latter country 
(Hungary) — traffic is actually impeded as regards imports by 
the Austrian Tariff; but this new opening would change that 
Tariff. The States of Austria, Gallicia, Bohemia, the Here- 
ditary States, and Bavaria, would feel, more or less, the benefit 
of this eastern passage to the sea, affording to them new 
markets and new supplies. 

TVallachia, Moldavia, and Bulgaria produce the finest and 
the cheapest Indian corn, and if not the finest wheat, at least 
the cheapest within range of the Black Sea. The charges at 
present incurred on passing through the Danube amount to 
three shillings the quarter,* which is equal to twenty per cent, 
on the cost price of wheat, and fifty per cent, on that of Indian 
corn; under this charge the export amounts to 1,000,000 
quarters, of which 450,000 directly, and 250,000 indirectly, 
reach England. An agriculturist of eastern reputation 
(Joanesko) calculates that a rise of price of ten per cent, 
would suffice to double the production for exportation in the 
Principalities. To those who have visited the provinces and 
Roumelia this statement will perhaps be more surprising than 
to strangers. The processes are so rude, the means of 
transport so cumbersome, the want of care in threshing and 
housing so great, the taxes and forced labour in TVallachia and 
Moldavia so oppressive, that the impression made through the 

* Statement of a London Broker. — " G-alatz and Ibrail are free 
ports. At Odessa there are great inconveniences from quarantine, 
heavy charges, uncertainty, venality, and your business is not dis- 
charged without some payments, as bribes, which a master must 
know how to manage; nevertheless we can take charters from 
Odessa at from 10s. 6d. to 3 s. less per quarter than from the few 
ports of the Danube. These additional charges are incurred partly 
from the state of the river, partly from the nature of the climate, and 
from Eussia. The lighterage is effected under contract with Russian 
boats, so that at times they charge what they like, and vessels are 
exposed to great risks. The climate in the autumn is so bad that 
great expense is incurred for medical aid : a vessel recently came 
home, having lost all her crew save two. The other charges are for 
quarantine, which is vexatious, and in the last degree hampering." 



35G 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



eye on the traveller is that of disbelief in any prosperity, 
and hopelessness of any amelioration. These impressions, as 
I know in my own case, can only be removed by unquestion- 
able results. 

Russian corn sells at an advance over that of the Danube 
of ten per cent, for soft wheat, twenty for hard. This 
difference does not result from the soil, but from want of 
care in the selection of seed, cleanliness in threshing, atten- 
tion to housing, Sec, all of which would disappear under the 
effects of a steady demand. The charges by the Danube 
exceed those at Odessa by nearly one and a half piastres 
per kilo, or twenty per cent, on the cost price. Russia 
thus enjoys a fictitious advantage of from thirty to forty 
per cent.; by it her export trade alone subsists: against it 
the Provinces not only contend, but have created their 
present commerce, which only commenced in 1834. The 
total charges on all grain supplied from Russia are calculated 
at fifteen per cent. In the Turkish Province of Bulgaria, 
south of the Danube, grain is charged the tithe, and a local 
tax {saltan) which may amount to as much more ; but then 
comes the export duty of the English Treaty, which imposes 
twenty per cent, more, raising the duty to forty per cent. 
In the Provinces north of the Danube, the English Treaty is 
not in operation, but the charges upon the Danube are nearly 
equivalent to it, yet when a sudden demand arises, Turkey 
can export from the Provinces north and south of the 
Danube as much as the whole of Southern Russia and one fifth 
more. It will thus be apparent that either by lowering the 
charges on the Danube, or by abrogating the export duty, 
the only limit to this exportation would be the necessities of 
Europe. 

But grain is not the only produce. "Wallaeliia contains 
mountains of salt, which would supply the whole of the 
Levant, Operations of this description, and the impulse 
given to enterprise, would doubtless lead to the re-opening of 
the ancient mines of which Russia has already endeavoured to 



CANAL OF THE DANUBE. 



357 



obtain possession, and to which she proposed to send 40,000 
miners to work. Another important freight for the canal 
would be timber, and staves, from the oak forests of Serbia, 
and the upper parts of Wallachia. The herds and flocks are 
worth, at present, little more than their hides, skins, wool, 
and tallow : with their extension, what limit is there to the 
supply of tallow and hides ? * Already they export 2000 
tons of tallow, and it is the best in the world j f Nor must 
the pigs of Serbia be forgotten, either as live-stock, or cured. 
Constantinople would be supplied with cattle for slaughter, 
and at one quarter of the meat consumption of Englishmen, 
would require 100,000 head; which with the prevailing cur- 
rents and winds would reach the Bosphorus in forty- eight 
hours. 

Whatever the Provinces gain by their exportation, they 
immediately expend on foreign goods : the greater portion 
of which is already from England; but the whole would 
come from England, were it not for the obstructions so often 
referred to. In 1849, £539,712 sterling in value, (10,000 
tons bulk,) were shipped direct from London and Liverpool, 
and it is estimated that the Eussian Consul's fees thereon 
amounted to £13,000. I have before me an account of fees 
paid by a shipping house ; the following are specimens : — 



128 tons, Consul fees . . . £80 18 8 



But these are not the only charges ; there are cases and 
tarpaulins, which are required for making up the packages, 
by the Eussian regulations, of the expense of which I cannot 

* The cattle are at present exposed to epidemic diseases, which 
commit frightful ravages. This is entirely owing to want of winter 
shelter and provender. 

f Those who use the blow-pipe know alone its value ; it gives the 
best light, and clearest flame, owing to the careful application of 
heat in rendering it. 



Ships. 



155 ditto 

117 ditto 



83 15 8 

84 8 4 



05S 



THE DANUBE AXD EUXIXE. 



get a satisfactory statement. The charges may in all amount 
to from 30<s. to £2 per ton. 

The Eussian Consular fees demanded in London and Liver- 
pool are indeed mere extortion, and might be recovered as 
such in a court of law. This is not, however, the first time 
that such a course has been adopted ; Peter the Great, on his 
visit to this country, made a similiar arrangement for tobacco, 
exported from the Port of London for Eussia, the proceeds 
of which, amounting to about £100,000 a year, were paid 
to the Marquis of Carmarthen : thus he obtained the co- 
operation of England, in wrenching from Sweden the territory 
on which St. Petersburgh now stands. These charges were 
however on merchandise, which, though ultimately destined 
for Eussia, passed through neutral territory ; the present 
imposition is upon goods proceeding to countries which are 
not Eussian, to which she pretends no right, and where she 
has no possession. She exacts them in London rather than 
at the mouth of the Danube, because she seems to have even 
more reliance on the individual meanness of British traders, 
than on the aggregate servility of public opinion. 

The increase of price in the year 1847 exhibits, by anti- 
cipation, the effect of a diminution of charges ; we may 
therefore take it as a basis for calculating the traffic of the 
canal. In that year about 500,000 tons* were shipped 
from the Turkish ports in the Danube ; from the Eussian 
ports, the Danube inclusive, 430,000 tons ; from the Turkish 
ports, south of the Danube, 500,000 tons; in all, from the 
Black Sea, nearly 1,500,000 tons. Had the canal been 
open in that year, at least 1,000,000 tons would have passed 
through it: let us, however, take it at 750,000 tons : very 
reasonable dues upon that quality would furnish a yearly 
return equal to the original expenditure. 

* Ibrail 1688 Ships, averaging 140 Tons . . 228,320 

Turkish side 1200 „ „ 90 „ . . 105,500 

Galatz 1234 „ „ 140 „ . . 171,360 



Tons . 505,180 



CANAL OF THE DANUBE. 



350 



The Turkish Government if it received nothing, even if it 
advanced the whole of the capital, without receiving any of 
the return, would still be a gainer. It would save the money 
at present sent to Odessa, to buy grain for the capital and 
the troops, and that expended in the contrivances for regu- 
lating the exchange ; it would profit indirectly from the 
increase of wealth of the capital, become the centre of the 
grain trade ; it would feel in every branch of its revenue 
the £8,000,000 poured in, in yearly repayment for harvests 
gathered from fields now lying waste, or for grain rotting in 
the granaries, or actually burnt on the threshing-floor ; lastly, 
it would have the tithe on every object exported, which is 
equivalent to an export duty of ten per cent. 

But to realise these advantages, there must be a relaxa- 
tion of the export duty as regards grain : not a penny 
is at present received from this tax, for that exported by 
the Danube pays none. The duty is only maintained 
from the notion carefully instilled that they are bound 
by the English Treaty to exact the sum it specifies ; yet 
already they have reduced it, though not indeed on articles 
competing with Eussian produce : they have allowed the free 
exportation of carpets, reduced the duty by more than one- 
third on valonia, one-half on manufactured silks from 
Aleppo, and the Pasha of Egypt has reduced the transit 
duty from three to half per cent. 

This enterprise would augment the military strength of the 
empire. By means of steam, and with this passage, the 
contingents of the remotest Provinces, in case of a war, 
might in a few days be distributed over the whole line of 
operations. The canal, with the city that would soon arise 
upon its border, would necessitate the strengthening of that 
important plain of the Dobroja, so singularly neglected to 
this day. This channel would bind still closer the alliance 
between the Danubian Provinces and the Porte, and would 
connect with the Ottoman Empire the material well-being of 
Hungary; these populations would find on the Bosphorus 



360 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



the centre of their commercial activity, no less than that of 
their political defence. 

The Turkish government has expended .£4-0,000 upon 
a futile and absurd plan, which has ultimately failed, 
the road from Trebizond to Erzerum. Its ostensible object 
was to save the transit duties on the trade to Persia. If it 
was an object to prevent this trade with the centre of Asia 
from falling into the hands of Eussia, surely it is no less, to 
rescue out of her hands that of the centre of Europe. If 
Eussia can be beaten on the east of the Black Sea, she surely 
can also be discomfited on the west — if indeed !* 

The English government so anxious to further the one 
project, nay so violent for its execution, can it be indif- 
ferent to the other ? If England possesses influence in Tur- 
key, and uses it to lead her into the ways of progress and 
civilisation, surely this was the occasion. When Austria, in 
1844, pressed her scheme to the utmost of her power and 
Eussia set to work to oppose her, did England come forward 
with influence or counsel ? No ! she left Russian threats and 
gold to win the day. At the close of 1850 the plan was 
revived, and the Porte was so favourably disposed, as to ap- 
point a Commission to examine, it. Russia then never moved, 
for England awaking from her trance suggested a counter- 
project — a railway from Silistria to Varna ! 

Even in Europe, railways are not found to pay for traffic 
alone. Here the merchandise is of the heaviest kind, and 
the lowest value ; the great export of the provinces being 
of less value than coal in England. The distance is double 
that of the canal. The capital required would be at least 
six times greater, and the traffic of the canal would not 
pass over it : who would advance the money, when in three 
or four months the canal might be cut. The profits of the 
enterprise and its value for Turkey, must depend on admitting 
sea-going vessels in the Danube, or on bringing the vessels 

# " The English ambassador has become a Russian engineer." Such 
was the remark of a person holding a large place in the public eye, 
when he heard of the military road from Trebizond to Erzerum. 



CANAL OF THE DANUBE. 



361 



of the Danube to the sea. One of the chief sources of profit 
would be rafts of timber, which never could support transit by 
rail. It was this last consideration that induced the Council 
to negative the project of the railroad, but the end had been 
gained, the canal was dropped. 

In this case I have no Parliamentary, or diplomatic evi- 
dence to produce, the matter was managed in secret ; but it 
is no secret at Constantinople that it was the English Am- 
bassador who set himself against the plan; and in such 
points as these the influence of England no doubt is success- 
fully exerted. It is a curious fact that the Foreign Secretary 
who could not influence, except by his individual vote, and that 
given openly and under responsibility as a member of 
Parliament, the construction of any English Eailway, however 
insignificant, should be able by a whisper never in the ordi- 
nary course to transpire, to frustrate in a Foreign State an 
operation of the greatest magnitude and benefit. Having 
once, in consequence of this and such like acts, asked in 
Parliament for the production of the intructions which he 
expedited for the Government of the Ottoman Empire, which 
as he was not responsible to it, he was bound at least to com- 
municate to those by whose power he acted, he replied : — 

" It is obvious that any communication of that sort gene- 
rally passes between Governments which are on the most 
friendly and confidential footing, and from the very nature of 
the case, such communications must not be made by one 
party, nor required by the other, except with the perfect 
understanding that they are not to be made the subject of 
discussion." 

This plan was originally proposed twenty years ago, if 
carried then into effect the Principalities might have benefited 
up to this time, to the extent of from 100 to 120 millions 
sterling paid to them for raw produce, and England might 
have had, by this time, in the Black Sea, customers to the 
amount of six or seven millions sterling. 

The strength of a nation depends, as we have been told 
long ago, upon its alliances, or in other words, upon the respect 

16 



362 



THE DANUBE AND EUXIXE. 



that is bome to it. In this kind of power Turkey has, in 
recent times, rapidly progressed ; there is no measure which 
could more raise it in the estimation of Europe than this ; it 
would be looked upon as an evidence of political foresight, no 
less than as an earnest of the faculty of imitating Europe in 
things really beneficial. As to the obstacle, it is impossible 
to offer to the Porte a stronger argument than its own ex- 
ample. If it has braved Russia by forming an army, it 
can brave her also by cutting a ditch. A canal may be as 
desirable as an army. In the one case it had enormous 
difficulties to contend with ; in the other, there are none ; 
European capital and science are at its disposal ; the good- 
will of all Europe, is at the disposal of Turkey, from the 
moment it is seen that she has resolved to act for herself. 



N.B.— The Times waited till the 2d of July, 1853, to 
write : — 

" If anything be done by the Russians to intercept that 
important channel of trade, or to prevent the free export of 
corn from the Danubian ports, the question will become one 
of universal interest. * * * This reminds us of the 
extreme importance, both commercial and political, of re- 
opening the ancient mouth of the Danube. * * * A 
ship canal would cut off two hundred miles of intricate river 
navigation, and place the outlet far from the Russian fron- 
tier. We shall not lose sight of these countries again until 
their condition and their political rights are more satisfac- 
torily settled." 

On the 8th of July it had to write : — 

ct All the money, all the ships, and all the sea in the World 
cannot prevent Russia from doing what she is now doing — 
taking military occupation of the Danubian provinces. If 
we proceed to hostilities now, it must be to stop this process, 
and we might as well attempt to stop the north wind in its 
passage from Russia to the Mediterranean. " 



363 



CHAPTEE VI. 
The Evacuation of the Principalities in 1851. 

While Eussia has been advancing thus gradually and 
unobtrusively her diplomatic hold over the Danube and the 
Black Sea, a fact of a very different character and one well 
calculated to occasion surprise meets us in the evacuation of 
the Principalities, effected at a moment when she appeared 
all powerful. The circumstance derives immediate interest 
from events now pending, and deserves mention if only 
because it has remained unknown. 

The tenure of the Porte has long appeared of the 
most precarious kind, but certainly not as the result 
of dexterity and care; and it has strengthened itself in 
proportion as events occurred which seemed calculated to 
dissolve it. The Porte seemed to have no task on its 
hands but to accomplish or anticipate the wishes of its 
rival. We have seen . Eussia with periodical regularity 
marching into these Dependencies without contention or 
resistance; but it has so happened that she has had with equal 
regularity to walk back again. It might be that the people, 
however disgusted with the Turks, had still some disgust in 
reserve for the Kalmucks, and that at all events they pre- 
ferred to liberating armies they had to feed, tyrants they 
never saw. The ill will of the people against the Turks was 
exaggerated ; they could not misrule much, where they did 
not rule at all ; nor be very ferocious where never present. 
Their haughty carelessness removed deep grounds of opposi- 
tion, and their subjects could not suspect them of insidious 
designs, far less of theoretic views, against their independ- 
ence. Their barbarism was sterling, a barbarism of gold, 
beside the pinchbeck civilisation of the Eussians ; it was a 



THE DANUBE AND EUXIXE. 



barbarism ignorant and stupid ; it inflicted neither conscrip- 
tion nor serfage ; warred with no peculiarity of tongue, 
opinion, or habit; and did not bless the nations with 
uniformity or centralisation. Now Eussia' s business was 
to teach both lessons to the Porte ; for, from the day that it 
proposed to unite the Principalities, she became mistress on 
the Danube, — nay, her sway would have extended, if her flag 
was not there unfurled, to the heights of the Bosphorus and 
the fortresses of the Dardanelles. So far she did succeed as 
to have administrative transformed into diplomatic questions, 
and thus transferred the decision of all cases to Constanti- 
nople, there to be managed by Dragomans, and settled by a 
Firman : that, is, by arbitrary decrees such as the Ordon- 
nances of Algeria. Governing by Firman was a quasi " admi- 
nistrative union for it was a violation of the guaranteed 
privileges of the Principalities, subjecting them to the gene- 
ral administration of the empire, without the conditions or 
guarantees on which that administration rests. However, 
the people persisted in referring these acts not to the Turks 
whom they believed to be stupid, but to the Ptussians whom 
they knew to be artful. The Principalities, often irritated, 
were never alienated, and the periodical successes of Eussian 
craft prepared the regular return of Turkish apathy. 

In presence of a Eussian army of occupation, so complete 
was the ascendancy regained by the Porte, that while in one 
of the Provincial capitals the Turkish Commissioner was re- 
ceived with every demonstration of enthusiasm not one even 
of the Boyards would visit or receive visits from the Eussian 
Commander-in-Chief ; yet the one is a distinguished general 
and writer, the other a young untried man, recently filling 
no higher post than that of clerk in the Foreign Office. 

It is supposed that religion gives to Eussia here a great 
hold ; the mistake is as complete as it is universal. Every- 
where throughout the East, Eussia has lost that lever from 
its too frequent use and its disastrous effects ; elsewhere she 
sends religious bribes, silver chalices, brocade vestments, 
painted missals, psalteries, and pennons : on the Principa- 



EVACUATION OP THE PEIXC1PALITIE3. 3G5 



lities she imposes a religious tax, amounting to twelve 
times their tribute to the Porte, £20,000 is paid to the one, 
£250,000 to the other. It is paid indeed in the shape of 
the revenues of Monasteries, &c., and goes to Greek Priests, 
but these are not native ; it is Eussia who maintains the 
Impost, and who uses it to repay political services. Thus it 
was that the priesthood took the lead, in their canonicals, in 
the ovation prepared for the Turkish troops when they 
crossed the Danube in 1843 ; and so entirely are the sympa- 
thies of the people and their old traditions associated with 
Mussulman greatness, that in the popular song for General 
Bern, he is known as Murad Pasha. 

It is in these favourable dispositions of the Principalities 
towards Turkey, and their aversion to Eussia, that for the 
last century has resided the security of the Ottoman Empire. 
Were these dispositions reversed it would have already been 
handed over to the Czar to " preserve its integrity and inde- 
pendence." It will suffice to state, that it is impossible for 
Eussia to act by military force upon the Ottoman Empire 
from the Pruth ; and that even from the Danube she can 
operate only by the aid of the resources she draws from the 
Principalities. 

As regards the future, an attack upon the Ottoman Empire 
is out of the question ; she will operate by means of internal 
schism and revolt, and will bring herself within reach so as 
to take advantage of it by a prior occupation of the Princi- 
palities, for which the ambiguous position she has created for 
them by Diplomatic means, will afford the occasion. An 
attempt of this kind was made in 1850, when her army was 
there : it was not successful, but the circumstance is too 
instructive not to be mentioned : the plan was so bold and 
extensive that, as it has failed, it will with difficulty be cre- 
dited ; it was believed at the time by persons placed in the 
highest positions, and there are facts too authentic and 
numerous to admit of doubt. 

Notliing less was devised than a revolution in Bulgaria, 
Bosnia, and Serbia, with a simultaneous one in Syria, con- 



366 



THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



certed with the Pasha of Egypt : the Sultan himself was 
to be taken off; a revolution at Bucharest would have 
justified the reinforcement of the army of occupation by 
50,000 men collected at Bessarabia, and so 70,000 Eussians 
might have marched on Adrianople to place a New Sultan on 
the throne, whilst a squadron dropped down from Sevastapol 
to the Bosphorus, to save the Capital and protect the 
Christians. 

The scheme failed, because such schemes are more easy to 
plan than to execute ; because in fact, at the time it was not 
executable. The Bulgarian revolution was impracticable 
without the support of Serbia — Serbia acted against it. The 
Admiral's ship was blown up in the Golden Horn, but the 
ministers had not at the moment arrived on board. A 
draught prepared for the Sultan, was swallowed by an 
Eunuch ; * the Syrian insurrection failed because Bern had 
been sent to Aleppo to be out of the way. The revolution 

* There is no secret as to the name of the physician who prepared 
the draught — Dr. Spitzer. To the indignation of the Seraglio, the 
Sultan would not allow him to be put to death, but dismissed him 
to Yienna with a pension. The circumstance having been detailed 
in a pamphlet which reached Vienna in June, 1852, a mystification 
was put forth on the 28th of August in the Augsburg Gazette, by 
pretending a new conspiracy in that year and confounding it with 
that of 1850. I extract a passage. 

"The Sultan's physician, Dr. Spitzer, has been suddenly removed, 
and appointed Councillor of the Turkish Legation at Vienna. There 
are many stories afloat, the most probable one is that Dr. Spitzer 
was offered an enormous sum by the reactionary party if he would 
poison the Sultan, and threatened with a speedy death if he refused. 
The Doctor showed the letter to the Sultan, and has been removed 
to save him from danger. Last time it was the Sultan's brother, 
whom it was attempted to gain over, but who made the Sultan aware 
of what was going on ... . The journey of the Sultan to Chalki, 
to visit the new Marine School, was to be taken advantage of to 
carry out the views of the conspirators, when the Sultana Valide 
sent a steamer after the Sultan, to make known the conspiracy to 
him. Many persons have been arrested, and various Pashas have 
disappeared. People too have recollected that on that very day two 
years, when the Sultan was to have gone on board, the Admiral's 
ship blew up." 



EVACUATION OF THE PEINCIPALITIES. 367 



at Bucharest did not take place, because Achmet Effendi 
happened to nil the office of Imperial Commissioner. 

At Aleppo, however, an outbreak did take place, and it 
affords us the opportunity of tracing the conspiracy to its 
source, and of showing the preparations made in Europe for 
profiting by the catastrophe had it been more signal and 
general. 

A certain Armenian, named Tazmadji, implicated in the 
attempt to assassinate Kossuth,* and generally reputed to be a 
poisoner, arrived at Aleppo, accompanied by eight Hungarian 
renegades. These men were paraded about the public places 
in Mussulman costume; in a few days they recanted and 
publicly reviled Islam, the deadliest offence to Maho- 
medans, they then took refuge at the different consulates. 
Other exasperating circumstances were not wanting, and 
the insurrection followed. It has been attributed to a 
reaction of fanaticism against the new order of things, but 
Europeans were not maltreated after Navarino : if it had 
been so, how should the Armenians and Jews have been 
spared, and the populous fury directed only against the 
Franks, Catholics, and Greeks ? 

After the rage of the people had been exerted against the 
Franks and the Consuls, the Arabs of the Desert, with 
admirable instinct, arrived. No Yazmadji had been amongst 
them, but they had gone to Egypt, and had returned, each 
man, with gold in his sack, some ten, some twenty, some thirty 
thousand dollars. 

Within the shortest time the intelligence of the events of 
Aleppo could reach St.Petersburgh, that capital was astounded 
at the appearance of a leader in the " Northern Bee," the 
special organ of the Emperor. There Abbas Pasha was vindi- 
cated against charges of treason, whilst at Constantinople 
everything was explained by the repugnance of the Arabs to 
the conscription ! 

* A case into which the English Embassy instituted an inquiry, 
and concluded for the reality of the charge 5 at least it allowed that 
belief to be entertained at Pers^ 



368 THE DANUBE AND EUXIXE. 



The alertness of the editor of the "Northern Bee 99 was 
not a solitary incident : the instant the news reached London 
the English Minister wrote to Paris to suggest the necessity 
of measures against the Ottoman Empire. The English 
Ambassador hastens to the Foreign Office, General La Hitte 
listens with profound attention. The Representative of 
Eussia happens to call at the same moment, and is waiting in 
an adjoining room. The Protocol is in the very act of 
parturition, when the door opens and a chef de bureau enters 
and places in the hands of the General-Minister the official 
report of General Bern, which had reached Paris in an 
unofficial manner.* 

By this document the total loss of life at Aleppo was 
reduced to fifteen, and the explosion of fanaticism was 
explained as arising from obscure and foreign intriguers ; 
the measures adopted by the Government were stated to have 
arrested the disorders, and its resolution was declared to 
punish the delinquents. So fell, still-born, the Protocol, and 
the Representatives of England and Russia had to return to 
their respective hotels re infectd. The French Government, 
which is sometimes given to oscillations, having desisted 
from smiting the Porte by a " coalition," raised it to the skies 
in an article in " La Patrie ; " and the Government, against 
whom in the morning was to be evoked a crusade of revo- 
lution and Christianity was, in the evening, held up to the 
theatres and clubs of Paris as a model of firmness and 
moderation. The Chef de Bureau, however, not being 
sufficiently Russian for the Foreign Department, was trans- 
ferred to another : and Bern, who had killed both insurrection 
and Protocol, was despatched to the other world, f 

# This statement was made to me at the time in Constantinople ; 
I have no means of testing its accuracy ; but it partly rested on a 
report of Callimachi. 

f The English Ambassador at Constantinople interposed to 
prevent the Porte from conferring any mark of favour on General 
Bern. Into the circumstances of his death an inquiry was instituted 
by confidential agents who reported that the treatment of his malady 
(intermittent fever) had been such as to ensure a fatal issue. 



EVACUATION OF THE PRINCIPALITIES. 369 



It is no unlikely thing that such events under such 
circumstances should occur. What else indeed can be 
expected with a foreign army in occupation — the occupying 
Power being the most artful and unscrupulous of Govern- 
ments, and the occupied state the most harmless and 
negligent ? The circumstances which I detail are but the 
programme to be again rehearsed, and over and over again 
until it passes from fiction to reality. No wonder that after 
such an escape Turkey should have endeavoured to get rid of 
its alarming guests, the marvel only is that it should have 
succeeded. 

The Principalities, however, afford to Turkey the most 
advantageous of fields for diplomatic contest. There Eussia 
can neither put forward her allies, nor, as in Egypt, Syria, or 
Greece, play upon their mutual jealousies. Freed from such 
entanglements, Turkey is morally if not intellectually a 
match for Russia. It may be difficult to move the Turks, 
but once they have resolved, they will adhere to their point 
with more pertinacity, and carry it out with as much dex- 
terity as any people on earth. 

The most offensive feature of the occupation was the 
charge for the support of the Russian troops, exacted with- 
out Treaty or Warrant, the expenses of the Turkish troops 
conjointly occupying, being entirely defrayed by their own 
Government. The resources of the Provincial Government 
having failed, the Russian General offered to open for them 
a credit on St. Petersburgh, and so by supplying the Russians, 
they had become indebted to Russia. It was on this point that 
the Porte determined to raise the question and she waited 
for an occasion. 

The Hospodar of Wallachia, Stirbey, had proposed to place 
his son in the Russian diplomatic service : on this Achmet 
Effendi, Commissioner of the Porte, had taken offence. 
A Hospodar lies on no bed of roses when the Porte declares 
itself his adversary ; and to regain its good will it was well 
worth making sacrifices. The Hospodai commissioned his 
agent to deliver to the Grand Vizier a memoir in which it 

16 5 



370 THE DANUBE AND EUXINE. 



was stated that the Province could no longer bear the burden 
of the Eussian troops, and urging the Porte to take mea- 
sures for their removal, or for the reimbursement of the 
Provincial treasury. On presenting it, the agent said, "You 
will see that the Prince is not so black as Achmet Effendi 
would make you believe." The Grand Yizier replied, " Very 
well, we will see what we can do for him." A few days 
afterwards the Eussian dragoman, M. Aristarchi, went to 
the Minister of Foreign Affairs to suggest, that if the Porte 
was not inclined to withdraw its troops, and its Commissioner, 
it need not proceed on the application of the Prince. 

The Porte did however proceed, and transmitted a formal 
demand for the Evacuation, which left Constantinople upon 
the 15th January. On the 21st, M. Titoff took occasion 
informally and verbally to communicate to Ali Pasha that 
the proposal would meet with no obstruction, as he had 
already received the orders of his Court to make it ! No 
steamer had arrived, and no messenger ; no communication 
could have reached M. Titoff for the eight previous days. 

Either M. Titoff had by anticipation been armed with 
powers to meet this contingency, or he acted under an un- 
mistakeable necessity presented by the case. That necessity 
consisted in the hostile dispositions of the Principalities and 
in the respectable disciplined force now possessed by Turkey. 
It must also be observed that the immediate object of the 
occupation had been accomplished by the subjugation of 
Hungary, and that the Eussian troops in contact with the 
Turkish, so much better paid and fed, were being inoculated 
with disaffection to that degree, that the regiments already 
relieved, had been dispersed and sent in small bodies to 
remote stations. 

If it was reauisite to yield — than was it desirable to do so 
with promptitude and grace, so as to preserve a footing of 
confidential friendship, which would give her the control of 
the future measures of the Porte, and prevent it from 
taking steps by which her future return would be rendered 
impossible. 



EVACUATION OF THE PRINCIPALITIES. 371 



The Turks having themselves seized and sent away the 
leading men opposed to the Eussians, and the Government 
being in the hands of her partisans or faction, it would 
be easy to fire off a revolution; this would be the signal 
for the return of her army, or it may return on any other 
pretext — then it will return alone, there will be no Turkish 
army or commission. The political evacuation can take place 
only when the Porte on withdrawing her soldiers shall cause 
the provisional system to cease, by giving them a simple and 
intelligible charter by which to govern themselves. This 
indeed constituted a part of the original plan of the Porte 
and would have been carried out if Eussia had exhibited any 
signs of resistance, or even of hesitation ; but the unexpected 
facility of her assent confounded the Turkish Government 
and made them suspect that they had fallen into a trap. 
One of the members said " we thought we had hit her a 
heavy blow — she smiles and thanks us." 

At the critical moment of the negotiation, on the 21st 
January, the British ambassador, after having been refused 
a private audience, at a public audience represented to the 
Sultan, his Ministers as having lost the confidence of England, 
and being unworthy of that of their master,* As to Prance, 
not that her word matters one way or the other, she was 
sending in an ultimatum, and breathing flames about the 
Holy Places. Thus Turkey, being relieved from her officious 
friends, achieved the greatest diplomatic victory which her 
annals have to record ; but that does not prevent the Great 
Governments of the West from claiming as a diplomatic 
triumph, the having driven back 50,000 Eussian soldiers 
five hundred miles, and that too, when preparing to sign the 
Danish Protocol! 

# The day before, the Etesian Minister sent to the chiefs of the 
adverse party, to inform them of the step vrhich next day the 
English Ambassador would take, and of the language he would 
hodl. 



PART II. 



THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 



CHAPTER, I. 

Commercial 'Resources and Legislate of Turkey. 

The Greek Byzantine Emperors, whom the populace of 
Constantinople raised at pleasure to the throne, or hurled 
into the dust, had above all things to provide — cheap bread. 
The neighbouring provinces were consequently prohibited 
from exporting wheat ; but this, like all other attempts 
against nature, instead of supplying the capital, depressed 
and exasperated the provinces, and ended by ruining the 
Empire. 

The Turkish system was simplicity itself ; it enacted by 
law, and sealed by religion, that rule of administration which 
belongs to the earliest times. Unfortunately, however, the 
Greek system was not entirely blotted out with the Greek 
Empire, and, without the necessity, the Sultans followed 
the practice of their predecessors, so far as to prohibit the 
exportation of grain. 

This state of things lasted 376 years, from 1453 till 1829, 
when, after many ages of security, Constantinople was once 
more placed between foes on the North and South, traffic by sea 
was stopped, and she was in want of bread. She had still the 
two continents open, but the corn administration (Moubaya), 
invented to feed the capital, blockaded it as effectually by 
land as the Eussian squadrons by sea. Under the presence 
of absolute famine the old laws were suspended, and instantly 
plenty reappeared. 



THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 



Since Kussia obtained access to the Black Sea, her atten- 
tion has been given to the cultivation of wheat. Her soil, 
her climate, the distance at which she is placed, a difficult 
navigation, and a frozen sea during several months of the 
year, presented to such an enterprise great obstacles : the 
Bosphorus, too, was then closed against this commerce. 
Her perseverance has triumphed over all, even to the causing 
of the prohibition to be repealed by the Porte for the passage 
outward of her corn, while for that of Turkey it was retained 
in force. Across the narrow seas of the Ottomans, and be- 
tween their vast uncultivated plains, Russia sent her cargoes 
to the markets of Europe, and received in return those monies 
which place her in the position to aim at the empire of a 
reasoning but stupid age — a warlike but venal world. 

The Turkish Empire is composed of countries that in 
former times were the most nourishing on earth. The con- 
ditions of the tenure of land, the relations between proprietor 
and occupier, present no systematic impediment to prosperity. 
It possesses the most remaikable rratural facilities*for trans- 
port. The sea, which only washes the borders of other states, 
penetrates into its centre,- and gives it a maritime coast of 
about 1200 leagues, or twice and a half that of England, and 
five times that of France. The rivers communicating with 
these seas traverse the most fertile regions. Egypt has her 
Xile : the rich plains of Syria touch or approach the sea 
coast, reaching the Gulf of Acre to the south, and joining the 
Orontes on the north ; to the east flows the Euphrates. The 
mountain chains of Asia Minor run all east and west, so as 
to allow the plains and' watercourses to penetrate from the 
sea to the interior ; by the four rivers that run to the west 
and the two that run to the north, the elements are afforded 
of a system of internal water-carriage through its whole 
extent. Roumelia is traversed by the great artery of Central 
Europe, the Danube, which a canal of five leagues would 
cover with craft, letting the Black Sea into the land, carrying 
it right up to Hungary, and so uniting to the Bosphorus, the 
repose and prosperity of the Austrian Empire. 



COMMERCIAL LEGISLATION. 373 



These provinces are placed under the most happy sky : 
they neither know the rigours of winter, nor the intensity of 
summer : a frugal and docile population of nearly forty mil- 
lions is sprinkled over a soil not yet broken to labour, or 
fashioned by art. 

With such a surface for the growth of corn, with such 
facilities for its transport, Turkey would unquestionably have 
seized upon the commerce of the world, if the sentence had 
not gone forth against her : " You shall not traffic in the 
stores of your granaries, the flax shall dry upon the stalk, the 
olive shall rot under its tree, the forests shall never descend 
from the mountains, nor the brass and iron, the gold and 
silver, emerge from their entrails. 5 ' This sentence the Sultan 
Mahinoud undertook to reverse, but the times were no longer 
w T hen an Ottoman Sultan was his own master. Ee did not 
dare to say to his people, "Enjoy the gifts of Providence 
he did not dare to say to the nations, " Come and trade with 
my people."* 

Turkey nevertheless had for the basis of her system free- 
dom of trade : this freedom was avowed and consecrated in 

* A recent work on Turkey has the following : — 
" If some of our enterprising countrymen, acquainted with com- 
mercial pursuits were to visit these provinces of European Turkey, 
they would find a rich field, as yet unexplored : I found a most 
anxious desire on the part of the inhabitants to establish a more 
intimate commercial connection with Great Britain for the disposal 
of then* timber, corn, and cattle, which seemed to He upon their 
hands without the possibility of a sale. 

" In the interior of Bulgaria and Upper Moesia, the low prices of 
provisions and cattle of every description is almost fabulous com- 
pared with the prices of "Western Europe. A fat sheep or lamb 
usually costs from eighteenpence to two shillings, an ox forty 
slnllings, cows thirty shillings, and a horse, in the best possible tra- 
velling condition, from four to five pounds sterling. Wool, hides, 
tallow, wax, and honey, are equally low. In the town and hans by 
• the road side, everything is sold by weight ; you can get a pound of 
meat for a halfpenny, a pound of bread for the same, and wine, which 
is also sold by weight, costs about the same money." 



376 



THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 



the treaties with all countries. The productions of foreigner- 
were not loaded with duties ; she did not wage a war of ex- 
change against her neighbours ; she did not dream of the 
protection of national industry ; the talons of the fisc did not 
gripe salt and tobacco ; and no octroi blockaded the dwell- 
ings of men. 

Whence the mysterious contrast ? Why this monstrous 
yoking of a living man and a carcass ? The cause is ex- 
plained by its effects : in Turkey nothing could be bought 
that Eussia sold ; but for all articles which Eussia did not 
sell, the markets were open without stint or limit. This 
prohibition has made Eussia what she is ; it was a singular 
effect of her greatest military triumph, that the war which 
placed in her hands the second capital of the empire ended 
with reversing the balance between the victor and the van- 
quished ; for after the removal of the restriction on the corn 
trade occasioned by the pressure of her blockade, no European 
vessel would have passed on to the Black Sea, but would 
have laden on the shores of the Mediterranean. 

The reimposition of the restriction was now a new enter- 
prise, and its accomplishment a new victory : it was achieved 
in the Treaty of Adnoupe, by means of a stipulation for un- 
limited freedom of trade. Every Eussian, or every subject of 
the Porte, who chose to go to Odessa for a passport, or to 
seek the protection of a Eussian consulate, might traffic far 
and near free from all charges, save that of the nominal 
Eussian tariff. Eussia at the time had not one native sub- 
ject or merchant in Turkey, but soon the whole country was 
covered with her " subjects they possessed themselves of 
all the channels of industry ; they broke through the whole 
order of administration ; every difference was solved in their 
favour by a threat, for to this commercial stipulation Eussia 
had appended for any remissness or neglect the unparalleled 
penalty of "reprisals."* The Porte at last fell back on 

* Yllth Article of the Treaty of Adrianople.— Eussian subjects 
will enjoy throughout the whole extent of the Ottoman Empire, as 



COMMEECIAL LEGISLATION. 377 



Prohibition ; the old capitulations, while they conferred on 
strangers the privilege to come to buy and sell whatever 
they chose, were not enunciations of principles but merely 
grants of favour, and they specially reserved the right of 
prohibiting the exportation of any article in cases of scarcity- 
The revival of such a pretension may appear a very weak 
device, and one which would only expose Turkey to new 
humiliations and embarrassments. The prohibition of the 
article was of course with a view to the sale of firmans for 
its exportation, those who purchased them stood in the light 
of servants of the government. As article after article came 
thus to be monopolised, the dissensions with Eussia were 
brought to a close by the extinction of the trade out of 
which they had originated, or by the transfer of the indivi- 
duals from the class of Eussian subjects to that of Turkish 
farmers. The Treaty of Adrianople was now more flagrantly 
violated than by the small abnormal duties hitherto imposed; 
nevertheless the terrors of the "casus belli" clause were 

well on land as at sea, the full and entire liberty of Commerce which 
the Treaties assure to them. The liberty cannot be infringed in any 
case or under any pretext, by any prohibition or restriction of what- 
ever kind, nor as the consequence of any regulation or measures 
whether of interior administration or legislation. The Eussian sub- 
jects' ships of merchandise shall be protected against every violence 
and every fraud. The first will remain under the exclusive jurisdic- 
tion and police of the Minister and Consuls of Russia ; the Eussian 
vessels will never be subjected to any visit on board whatever, on the 
part of the Ottoman authorities, neither in the open sea, nor in any 
of its ports or anchorages, and merchandise or produce belonging to 
the Russian subjects, after having acquitted the duties established by 
the tariff shall be freely sold, deposited or transported, from one 
vessel to another, whatever nation that vessel may belong to, without 
the Eussian subject having need to notify the fact to the local autho- 
rities, and still less to ask them their permission ; and if, which Grod 
forbid, any one of these stipulations should be infringed without full 
and prompt satisfaction being made, the Sublime Porte recognises^ 
beforehand, the right of the Russian Court to consider such infraction 
an act of hostility, and to have recourse immediately to reprisals 
against the Ottoman Empire* 



373 



THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 



left to slumber. Eussia ceased to be the patron of liberty of 
commerce, sacrificed her proteges, retracted her demands, and 
smoothed down her countenance. " Her end was gained."* 

But at this moment the Ottomon Empire, shaken from 
without and agitated from within, was floating upon the tide 
of experiment : if old institutions were in danger, habitual 
abuses had also lost their hold. The results of 1 8 2 9 could not 
be forgotten : the incessant vexations connected with trade, 
surrounded the doors of every minister with hosts of harass- 
ing supplicants; disorder would not be silenced, the pre- 
cariousness of the position in reference to Russia by the 
veiy measures into which she had driven them, could not fail 
to obtrude itself upon graver minds. Above all the ne- 
cessities of the Sultan, then intently engaged in creating an 
army, forced the Divan to devise, or at least to listen to 
schemes by which the restoration of commerce might be 
made subservient to the replenishing of the Treasury. f Thus 
arose the proposal made by Turkey, who had never before 
proposed any novelty, and the mission of a special Ambassador 
to England with no less an object than the revision of the 
whole system of commercial legislation. 

At this time, England's trade with her ancient customers 
had been cut off, by the avowal of her minister, the ancient 
channels had been blocked up, and she required to bring new 
trafficing worlds into existence. The countries of the Con- 

* See " England, France, Eussia, and Turkey," where these facts 
will be found published, in 1835, under the sanction of the then 
English Ambassador at Constantinople. It has been urged on me by 
persons who would be esteemed the first authorities in the matter 
that I am wholly mistaken in attributing Eussia' s conduct on this 
occasion to such deep design, or indeed to any design at all ; and 
that it is to be explained by the fact that these Apaltators, were 
chiefly Russian agents, and that largely profiting in the system, had 
found means to induce the Eussian Government to overlook it. 
All I can say is, that in this case, as in many others, accident favours 
the skilful, as fortune does the brave. 

t This idea was afterwards followed in the Budget of 1841, when 
it was proposed to meet a deficiency by a reduction of taxes. 



COMMERCIAL LEGISLATION. 379 



tinent had in peace combined to make commercial war on this 
nation, which, during the last struggle, had saved most of 
them from subjugation, subsidised while protecting them, and 
had been in the hour of victory as heedless of her interests, 
as in that of danger, she had been prodigal of her blood. 
Mistaken theories in some, political animosities in others, in 
many both conjoined, had prompted a blockade of custom- 
houses, inflicting loss, implanting notions inimical to her 
prosperity and feelings dangerous to her power. 

Against this concert we had striven by arguments, pro- 
fessions, statistics, and reduction ; we appealed to resem- 
blances of manners, community of science and literature, 
friendly recollections for benefits conferred, gratitude from 
Dynasties, who owed to us their thrones or their existence — 
we planned thirty-two commercial treaties ; but all in vain. 
Eepulsed and discomfited, we turned from the East to the 
West, and from the North to the South. The House of 
Brunswick arrayed all Germany in a hostile league, sympa- 
thetic France rejected our yarns : subsidies, auxiliaries, and 
all the muskets in the Tower could obtain no hospitality for 
our wares, from the Houses of Bourbon and Braganza : the 
new continent, rivalling meanwhile the antipathies of the 
old, was equally deaf to the charms of Downing Street. At 
last, sick of defeats, and worn with toil, the President of the 
Board of Trade exclaimed, amid the cheers and laughter of 
the House, "Thank God, we have done with commercial 
treaties." 

How now stood the matter with Turkey ? What sympathy 
had we to expect who had attempted to burn her capital, who 
stood the avowed patron of her revolted subjects and the 
close ally of her deadly foe ? Whose professed community of 
interest, had ever been exhibited in hostility of act ? We 
burdened with duty her wares, and refused her reciprocity, 
who alone in Europe, or the world, gave free admission to 
our industry, who suffered us to enjoy the carrying trade of her 
coasts, conceded to us the faculty of internal traffic, and per- 
mitted to our subjects settled in her dominions the exercise 



380 



THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 



of every municipal, commercial, and judicial function, un- 
shackled, unwatched, and untaxed. 

Turkey and Eussia stand in commercial legislation, as the 
north and south poles. The one prohibits nearly all the ma- 
nufactures of England, and seeks to enforce the imports of 
her raw produce ; the other admits all the manufactures ot 
England and prohibits the export of her raw produce. The 
foreign merchant in Eussia is surrounded and hampered by 
the most minute and oppressive restrictions : he is in every 
point inferior to the native. The foreign merchant in Turkey 
enjoys the fullest immunities, and is placed above the native. 
The Eussian system is the result of no theories, it is a mere 
calculation as to how commerce is to be used for political pur- 
poses. The Turkish system, in as far as it is restrictive, proceeds 
from no theories, but is the result of the success of Eussia in 
interfering with her internal regulations. Turkey is engaged 
in no design against any neighbour to carry thither either 
political influence or restrictive system. Eussia is engaged in 
designs against all her neighbours, and wherever she esta- 
blishes her power, there follows her system. Against Eussia 
England takes no step, either to enlighten the people or to re- 
sist the Government ; but favours her commerce, befriends her 
political ends, lends to her the whole weight of her power to 
support her aggressions, and extend her system. Yet these 
two systems stood in balance because the two empires did so, 
and we ought have thought of Turkey a little while, serving 
Eussia so much. With her activity pervading the world 
England had no time to consider what might be effected with 
the empire through which flowed the Danube, and the Kile, 
the Tigris, and the Euphrates ; which held in its hands the 
Isthmus of Suez and the Strait of the Dardanelles ; which 
extended from the torrid zone to the snows of the Caucasus, 
from the Adriatic to the Persian Gulf, — whose dominions 
in Europe, Africa, and Asia (exclusive of Arabia), equalled 
France, Germany, Italy, and Spain ; which was all agricul- 
tural, and where freedom of trade was the law of the State. 
This empire had to come to her to propose that mutual 



COMMERCIAL LEGISLATION. 



3S1 



abolition of restriction which she in vain had been preaching 
all round the globe. 

This appeal, strange to say, was not from the Porte to the 
English Government, but from Sultan Mahmoud to William 
the Eourth. The Ambassador was charged to say : — 

" The Sublime Porte, who appreciates and esteems at its true 
value the importance of these relations with one of the most 
enlightened and powerful nations of the world, knows also, Sire, that 
they have already secured the attention of your Majesty and doubts 
not that a benevolent system of reciprocity wiU soon come to be con- 
sidered by the Government of your Majesty as a means of fortifying 
and increasing that desirable union which exists between these two 
high Courts." 

So that it would appear that the Turkish Government relied 
more on the friendship of the King, than on the principles of 
the Administration. 

To the Porte it was not a simple matter of regulation : 
had it been so, it needed not to send to England. It 
was a delicate and precarious negotiation, in which it 
was essential to succeed if once they adventured upon a 
step ; their position was alarmingly insecure at home, tbey 
were under the Treaty of Hunkiar Skelessi, and the Rus- 
sian debt was unliquidated. They could not venture on a 
rupture with Kussia without the assurance of the support of 
England, and without that support so assured beforehand, 
they knew by hard experience that a rupture with Eussia 
would be a rupture with England. They wished then that 
England would make one of those proposals to them, that 
she was scattering over the earth, so that they might appear 
only to consent. 



382 



CHAPTER II. 

Negotiations with Turkey. 

Between the period when this mission was planned, and 
that when it arrived in England a discouraging change of 
administration had taken place. The party favourable to Free 
Trade had fallen from power, and the Duke of Wellington, 
whom the nations of the East had been taught to consider as 
a servant of the Emperor, was Prime Minister.* The two 
grounds of hope were thus cut off, and it proved impossible 
to effect anything. I owe it, however, to the Duke of 
Wellington to say, that he neither closed the door to dis- 
cussions, nor wrapped himself up in mystery and reserve. 
He entered frankly into the subject, and even laboriously 
perused statements of the case both with reference to the 
matters of trade and with respect to the means of political 
existence of that empire; and then rejected the overtures 
upon two grounds : First, his theoretic opinions upon 
taxation which were in favour of those upon trade \ 
secondly, on his conclusion, which nothing could shake, that 
Turkey was past salvation. He hesitated not to charge upon 
Lord Grey the ruin of that Empire in his admission of the 
Treaty of Adrianople, and subsequently of that of Hunkiar 
Skelessi.f That, however deplorable such a result might be, 

* The change of Administration was announced from St. Peters- 
burgh in these terms : " A marshal of the Emperor is now minister 
in England." 

f Lord Grey with whom discussions were simultaneously carried 
on, concurred with the Duke of Wellington in his opinion respecting 
Turkey, but attributed to Mm the catastrophe, saying, that it had 
been sacrificed by his own misjudgment of the war of 1828, and the 
conduct of the Government of which he was a member during that 
war. 



NEGOTIATIONS WITH TUEKEY. 383 



it was now incontestible and accomplished, and England 
could not undertake the Quixotic task of setting up a dead 
body upon its feet. He denied, moreover, that England was 
possessed of faculties to carry out any system whatever, and 
did not wish that it should be otherwise. "England," said 
he, " has done nothing great save by insubordination." I 
may further add that he was greatly rejoiced at the publication 
of Mr. Cobden's pamphlet, and exulted in my having been 
" answered." 

Soon, however, the other party came into office, and we an- 
ticipated an immediate and a joyful acceptance of our pro- 
posals, for the last measure of Lord Palmerston on leaving 
office had been one which implied the fullest approval of all 
the steps I had taken at Constantinople in reference to this 
matter. 

I know not in what terms to describe the reception of the 
proposal by the new Administration. Reception ! it was 
scouted and branded, with what withering epithet will the 
reader imagine, or believe ? — Russian.* The Porte of course 
hastened to withdraw its proposal. 

Fortunately there was then on the Throne a Sovereign who 
believed it to be his right and duty to attend to those matters 
which especially are confided to his prerogative. Then also 

* " TO SIE HEEBEET TAYLOB. 

(Extract.) " January 20, 1835. 

"I have just been dismayed to learn that Kouri Effendi has 
written to Constantinople, expressing all the discouragement and 
despair that Lord Palmerston had filled him with in their last inter- 
view, particularly his Lordship's observation, that my proposal for 
the tariff, that has cost so much to bring to the pitch where it now 
is, was a Russian 'proposal. Thi3 indeed is an act of suicide, and I 
am most anxious to know your opinion on the subject. Unless you 
have gained Lord Palmerston entirely — unless he understands the 
fault he has committed, I do not see what chance there is of my 
being of any — the slightest use, as serving the Government ; and, on 
the other hand, I am sacrificing myself and the question. 

" I have just learnt, also, that the mission of Ellis is in a state of 
abeyance, and that Mac JSTeill has come to the resolution of resigning 
his situation, unless the government adopts a more worthy policy." 



384 



THE LEVANT AND BED SEA. 



the King had a Private Secretary who applied to the subject 
his clear, judicious, and vigorous mind, and devoted to it his 
unwearying assiduity. The ambassador at Constantinople 
most heartily entered into the same views.* I need not 
enumerate further; suffice it say that, excepting the two 
chiefs of the Foreign and Trade Departments, the whole 
official body concurred in the plan as originally sketched at 
Constantinople. Several months of intense labour ensued, 
nor did I shrink from attributing the opposition of the Foreign 
Secretary to the only intelligible cause. At last he gave in, 
and unfortunately I accepted the change as a bona fide one, 
and was, therefore, willing to resign my previous convictions. 
It was now resolved that the proposal which the English 
Government had rejected when it came from the Turkish 
should be presented to it as an English one, and I was com- 
missioned to discuss it with the Board of Trade. 

Here difficulties of an unexpected nature arose ; at the 
Foreign Office it had been hateful as a Russian project, at the 
Board of Trade it was obnoxious as an Anti-Baltic one. The 
President of the Board of Trade was a Baltic merchant, and 
the same process had to be adopted with respect to him as 
with his colleague. After a futile attempt to bargain for the 
imposition of an export duty of ten per cent, on Turkish 

* " My deab Sie, — By Mr. Urquhart's desire, I forward to you a 
Letter for Moosheer Ahmed Pasha, and also a copy of a Memoir 
respecting the commercial system of this country, &c. 

" This Memou", I think, deserves to be minutely explained to the 
Pasha, and studied by him. 

e< I am of opinion, that were it acted upon in its main points, it 
would produce the most magnificent results to the Ottomon Empire. 

" The latter part of the Memoir states the mode of acting, to which 
I have always looked as the certain and effectual means whereby to 
defeat Russia — means most easy to be applied by us, and which, in 
the application, will produce great benefit to England - } independent 
of their political action. 

" I have the honour to be, dear Sir, 

" Yours, very faithfully, 

" POX S02TBT." 



NEGOTIATIONS WITH TURKEY. 385 



produce, which he conceived would protect the Baltic trade, 
he gave in. 

The chiefs of the two departments had, however, yielded 
only to necessity, and under the dread of exposure during the 
lifetime of the King. I pass over the painful interval. In 
little more than two years this Treaty, nominally the same but 
really changed into that which Mr. Poulett Thomson had 
desired for the prohibiting of Turkish exports, was imposed 
on the Porte as the condition of that aid against Mehemet 
Ali, which subsequently furnished the pretext for the Syrian 
Intervention. 



17 



386 



CHAPTER III. 
Commercial Treaty with Turkey of 1848. 

This Treaty as it stands merely doubles the duties of 
import upon British goods, and quadruples the duty on 
export of Turkish produce, and this concession is made on the 
condition of abolishing all prohibitions and monopolies. 

Two questions naturally arise : First, Was an equivalent 
required ? Second, Was the concession so hampered of any 
value ? That no equivalent was requisite must have already 
appeared ; what illegal vexations could counterbalance this 
legal burden it is difficult to imagine. 

Turkish exports must be classed in two categories. Many 
articles were nowhere subject to monopolies, and provinces 
containing ten millions of souls, were subject to no monopoly 
of any article. Silk, cotton, opium, tobacco, gums, dyes, &c. 
were perfectly free everywhere : grain, tallow, wool, timber, 
were free in Syria,* Egypt, Wallachia, Servia, Moldavia, and 
Samos. In regard, then, to the first class of articles and to 
all articles in the cited provinces, the increased duty was a 
mere surrender of the rights of British subjects, and a 
gratuitous imposition on Turkish trade. The Treaty was 
assumed to be a substitution of one kind of import for 

Aleppo, August 3d, 1843. 

* " The trade of the north of Syria, nor of Syria generally, 
derives no benefit by the abolition of monopolies ; because previous 
to the Convention, no commercial monopolies existed. The Con- 
vention in relation thereto cannot be considered a boon, nor in fact a 
compensation of any kind, to the trade of Great Britain with Syria ; 
certainly not for having inflicted on its produce an exportation duty 
of 12 per cent., after the grower has paid on the spot the usher of 
10 per cent, to the government." — Mb. Wekry. 



COMMEKCIAL TEEATY OF 1848. 387 



another, but the relief of a taxed article could not be 
obtained by the burdening of an untaxed one.* 

The Prohibitions were not permanent or universal, and 
might any day be unconditionally raised ; firmans could be 
obtained on the payment of a certain sum ; and if it would 
not pay they were not purchased. Firmans were yearly pur- 
chased for Mitylene, and oil was exported : grain was at 
times exported by firmans. Under the new system Mitylene 
exports no oil, and Constantinople imports grain ! Thus, 
then, the equivalent has placed on the free goods an uncom- 
pensated burden, on the monopolised goods a tax which is a 
prohibition ! In the restricted provinces it has replaced a 
partial by a general impost, and into the free provinces in- 
troduced the prohibitive system. The articles which were 
obstructed before are obstructed now, and the articles that 
were free before are burdened now.f 

It required not to wait for the result to be certain that a 
duty of twelve per cent, was more than heavy articles, such 
as grain, Indian corn, oil, and the like, could bear. The 
absence of roads had been the subject of lamentation to all 
those who had taken an interest in the Ottoman Empire, 
and what are bad roads, save a charge on heavy goods. By 
them, the country, 150 miles from a point of shipment, was 
doomed, as far as external traffic went, to sterility. The 
new duty was equivalent to lengthening the journey by fifty 
miles, and reduced to that extent the area of productive 
land. This is the result of a change introduced by system 
at the very moment that you are endeavouring to induce 
Turkey to call science to her aid. 

* " The duty of 12 per cent, amounts, in reality, on many of the 
products of Turkey — especially the coarse ones — to a total pro- 
hibition. It is, therefore, a matter of trifling consideration to 
merchants, what estimate the tariff places on objects which the con- 
vention has now set without the sphere of speculation." — Times. 

t What grain has been exported since 1839, has either been from 
provinces where the Treaty has not come into operation, or during an 
increase of price sufficient to over-ride the tariff. 



388 THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 



But this was not all : 

The twelve per cent, was not left to be paid in kind, or 
at a local valuation, but the amount in money was fixed by 
a Tariff for all the Empire. At Constantinople, the price of 
grain is raised by a consumption duty of eight per cent., 
and by heavy transport charges. The price of Constanti- 
nople was taken as the basis of the Tariff, and the twelve 
became twenty-five per cent. At this time England was 
under the sliding scale, fixed every fortnight by averages 
taken all over England ; she proposed this scale. She also 
suggested the specification of the Constantinople kilo, — 
the smallest measure, the highest price. 

Nor was this all. 

Goods derive in Turkey their nationality from the trader, 
not from the place of production. Whatever the foreigner 
buys is " foreign." The word " exportation" was thus 
accepted in its first intention, and applied in its natural 
sense, and whatever was " carried out" paid the duty, 
whether it went to the next town or to Canton. But 
foreign goods came in for the subjects of Eussia, who did 
not join in the Treaty, at one and a half per cent. : conse- 
quently, at Constantinople, or the other ports, Bussian 
grain was charged but a third or a fourth of the duty 
imposed on Turkish grain. Constantinople now imports 
from Odessa to the value of 40,000,000 of piastres of wheat 
and flour. Such things may appear incredible to a person 
who reads them in Europe : they are so even in Turkey. 
The late Minister for Foreign Affairs would not believe the 
fact here stated, till he had it confirmed to him by the 
Customer. In fact the Turkish Government were utterly 
in the dark respecting this negotiation from the beginning 
to the end. 

It is the same with respect to every other article. Tobacco 
is charged in the tariff two piastres, all but four paras. The 
tobacco exported from Syria to Alexandria averages two 
piastres in value ; the duty amounts to ninety-five per cent. ; 
consequently the tobacco of America, which at Alexandria 



COMMERCIAL TREATY OF 1848. 389 



pays but three per cent, (the additional two per cent, is only 
when sent into the interior), is brought across the Atlantic to 
undersell in the ports of Turkey its own produce. Take 
again a manufactured article, silk. The people of the Le- 
banon pay an export duty of twelve per cent, (in reality fifteen,) 
on sending it to the towns where it is manufactured. Manu- 
factured it is considered a new produce and is again subject 
to an export duty, which amounts to twenty per cent, so that 
an inhabitant of the Lebanon before he can wear his own 
silk, manufactured in a neighbouring town, has to pay thirty- 
jive per cent. He therefore buys the silk, or the silk and 
cotton imitations of Switzerland and Prussia, which are 
charged but five per cent. 

So far then the two preliminary questions are answered, 
and as no equivalent was required for the abrogation of 
monopolies, so has their abrogation on such conditions proved 
entirely sterile of all advantage. The commerce of the 
country has increased, but it has not been in those articles in 
which it was desired to open it, nor in those provinces on 
which it has been imposed. 

But England had the right in Turkey by the capitulations 
of exporting and importing all articles, on the payment of 
three per cent, and "nothing more. 5 '* No vexation could 
therefore exist save by sufferance ; and to resist these no new 
Treaty was required :f what use could there be in new 
Treaties, if the old ones were not executed ? But let us 
grant that the stipulations were not precise and specific 
enough — then England possessed the right of the "most 
favoured nation : " this Turkey did not desire to contest, the 
seventh article of the Treaty of Adrianople was framed to 
meet every supposable case. % 

* " Clause 30.— That having once paid the customs at the ports, 
not an asper more shall be taken or demanded." See also Clauses 
31, 34, 50, 51, 52, 53. 

t "Clause 18. — All the capitulations, privileges, and articles 
granted to the French government, and other powers, having been 
in like manner granted to the English." See also Clauses 44, 48. 

X " See this article cited at p. 376. 



390 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 



The object professed was to develope the resources of 
Turkey ; if an equivalent in augmented duties was necessary, 
surely it must have been laid on British imports. AYhy 
invent a distinction between imports and exports to apply it 
the wrong way ? The aggregate increase is ten per cent.; why 
not halve it, and place five on imports, and five on exports P* 
The explanation offered is that on no other terms could it be 
obtained. " You cannot," said Lord Palmerston, on the 1st 
March, 1847 ; "go to the minister of a foreign power with 
a draft in one hand, and a pen in the other, and say, { there 
sir, sign that or jump out of the window. 5 " This was said 
in reference to the additional two per cent, on British goods; 
there is no explanation for the burden on Turkish produce, 
and for the best of reasons, for it was enforced by the process 
above described. 

Finally: the Treaty does not abrogate monopolies, nor being 
abrogated does it prevent their reimposition. They were 
abrogated by the act of the Turkish Government,! and the 
wording of the Treaty, as we shall presently see, deprives 
England of all powers under it, of resisting the imposition 
of any and every tax ; and further deprives her of those 
rights which she possessed under the old Capitulations. 

The negotiation, which commenced with the view of setting 
free the ports of Turkey, has ended with sealing them up. 
It has, at the moment when Turkey was about to abandon 
its prohibitions, substituted for them prohibitory duties. 
This is the measure for which the English minister has 

* This was the original proposal of the Turkish government itself, 
and which it gave up on my urgent remonstrance, adopting in lieu of 
it that suggestion of the distinction between exports and imports, 
which will be hereafter explained, and which has been so artfully 
perverted. 

t " En effet, apres l'abolition de tous les drois interieurs qui ont 
ete remplace par le droit de 9 per cent., payable a l'exportation, et de 
deux sur l'emportation, nous voyons resusciter tous les jours les 
anciens droits qui etoientetombes en desuetude avant d'etre siqiprimes 
par les traites." — The Consul General of Russia to the Pasha of 
Beyrouth 26 March, 1850. 



COMMERCIAL TREATY OF 1848. 391 



claimed from applauding England and Europe, the credit 
having over-mastered and outwitted the cabinet of St. Peters- 
burgh on the field of all its triumphs ; this is the Treaty 
which all Europe has rushed to join, believing it to be a 
masterpiece of commercial legislation and of political design. 

I must now state what the principles of the Treaty were, 
which I proposed and which the English Government adopted, 
and sent out to Constantinople in 1837. 

1st. The " most favoured nation 55 clause. 

2d. The privileges of the British merchants to be exten- 
ded to subjects of Turkey. 

3d. The duty on imports to be retained at three per cent. ; 
those on exports to rise or fall on each article according to the 
difference between its value in the markets of Turkey and 
Europe : a commission of merchants at intervals of years to fix 
the scale : in no case the sum to exceed that previously paid. 

4th. Transit free. 

5th. To come into operation only when all powers had 
joined. 

The negotiation was to have been secret, and when settled 
between England and the Porte, they were conjointly to ad- 
dress themselves to the other powers to obtain their adhesion . 
No one would have gained by standing aloof. 

The Treaty as signed stipulates, 

1st. The " most favoured nation 99 clause. 

2d. Subjection of the English merchants in regard to 
internal trade to the duties paid by the subjects of the Porte, 
and not paid by other nations. 

3d. The concession of the right of internal legislation as 
against Treaties with foreign Powers. 

4th. Imports raised from three to five per cent. Exports 
from three to twelve : one and the same sum for all articles 
whether they could bear it or not. 

5th. Transit charged at three per cent. 

6th. To come into operation although no other nation 
joined. 

Such were the Treaties which, according to Lord Palmerston, 



302 



THE LEVANT AND BED SEA. 



" differed in no material respect." * The changes were 
made under the pretext of securing additional advantages. 
The British merchant is made to pay " as much " as the 
Turkish subject, by means of the words he shall pay " no 
more :" appearing to gain the privileges of the mod favoured 
subject, he loses those of " the most favoured nation." 

On the Treaty coming into operation, the Porte made 
arrangements to indemnify the farmers of customs, imagining 
that the English duties were to be reduced to the level of 
those of Russia, according to the 1st Article. One of our 
consuls fell into the same mistake, and demanded the repay- 
ment of duties on a cargo already shipped, and obtained it. 

The truly marvellous portion of this negotiation is, after 
all, the adhesion of the other Powers. The abolition of mo- 
nopolies being effected, was effected once for all, why then 
should France submit to a gratuitous charge on the ground 
that it was the price of their abolition ? The French Am- 
bassador had received instructions to negotiate a Treaty 
similar to the English, but on a memorial from the merchants, 
he wrote home to say that he could obtain more favourable 
terms. He was answered by peremptory orders, the reason 
assigned being that the French Government, " had yielded 
this point to England." 

The French merchants, so soon as their Treaty was signed, 
demanded the execution of the first clause. They were 
answered that a " tacit agreement existed between the Powers 
not to require in that respect the execution of the Treaty ! " 
One cf them exclaimed, " had Turkey no friend when she 
signed that Treaty?" 

Austria's repugnance was openly avowed, she indeed 
yielded as regarded the trade of the Mediterranean ; but 
retained her old rights for the trade of the adjoining provinces 
as Serbia, Moldavia, and Waliachia. 

Eveiy cabinet of Europe was brought to surrender its 
rights, and betray its people's interest ; not a single power, 
however great, or however small, stood out. Eussia was left 

* Lord Palm erst on' s statement in Parliament will be fourd at 
the end of this Chapter. 



COMMERCIAL TEEATY OE 1848. 393 



alone to play the part of antagonist, and to realise the profits 
of their self-imposed disabilities. 

It thus appears that whenever England takes a course, 
supposed to have in view the maintenance of public law, 
she is immediately followed by every state and government 
of Europe. A fact like this shows that the originality of 
design, or the hostility of dispositions, we lend to France, are 
but supposititious ; and that the obstructions we there meet 
with, or the dangers we may thence apprehend, are solely, in 
as far as they may be or become real, of our own creating. 

It will be recollected that this had been treated by Eussia, 
not merely as a hostile, but as a perfidious measure. She 
coupled it with the occupation of Carack, as acts forcing her 
to have recourse to arms, laying " on England the terrible 
responsibility of such a conflagration. 55 * In her avowed, as 
in her official organs, she threatened to retrieve at Calcutta 
the defeat she had experienced on the Bosphorus ; but in the 
manner of these threats she could not suppress her exultation, 
and on the very day that the Treaty was settled at the Board 
of Trade, these words were published in the Frankfort 
Journal — 

" We will make their profoundest combinations and 
master-strokes of design, the pivots of our policy, and the 
instruments of our greatness. 55 

On the other hand the English Journals, and especially 
those connected with the Foreign Department,! asserted that 

* Odessa Gazette. 

t "It may be assumed, without any unseemly exaggeration of 
sell- deluding triumph, that by the prudence of Lord Palmerston and 
the efforts of Lord Ponsonby, seconded by fortunate dispositions in 
the Court of Vienna and of the Porte, Eussian influence has sustained 
a signal defeat — a defeat which arms cannot retrieve, which bravado 
cannot efface, nor menace, nor perversion repair." — British and 
Foreign Revieiv. 

" Lord Ponsonby, in a letter to me, quoted in the published cor- 
respondence, says : — " I wrote to you when you were away that I 
was sure the agitation of it (the Treaty) would le^ to nothing like a 
settlement. I say, that I have not the smallest expectation of its 

17 § 



394 



THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 



it would transfer to Turkey from Russia that European 
demand of raw materials by which she had been enriched 
within the century to the amount of two hundred and sixty 
millions sterling. When concluded, it was pompously 
announced from the throne, extolled by the opposition, 
rapturously hailed by the nation. Was it not then natural 
for the statesmen of Europe, ignorant save in opinions, 
blind save for print, to believe that England had taken the 
lead in a great work which was to secure permanent tran- 
quillity ? 

If Russia stood aloof, was it by mere indifference ? The 
Treaty either served her, or threatened her. In the one 
case, why did she not join — in the other, why did she riot 
oppose? While any power stood out, the Treaty was in- 
operative, because the merchants of the dissenting power, and 
through them all other merchants, rode right over it. Had 
she not influence with one ? If not one stood out, clearly 
she was not opposed. Why then did she not join ? 
Because by her simulated opposition she ensured its success, 
and justified the impression that the falsified Treaty was the 
original one. When they had all joined, her position was 
magnificent : her merchants could import at one quarter of 
the duty paid by all others, and export at one quarter ; all 
her triumphs had conferred upon her no privileges to be 
compared with those which she reaped from a Treaty, levelled 
at her existence. 

A new administration comes into power in England; 
remonstrances pour in from every quarter: the monstrous fact 
was proclaimed of English Merchants being forced to borrow 
the names of Russian firms.* The necessity of a remedy was 

being accepted. Russian interests would be deeply affected by it. 
The Russians are not, I must presume, ignorant of the consequences 
of it ; and I know they are at this moment all powerful" 

# Col. Rose writes, on the 7th September, 1843: — "An unan- 
swerable fact proves the superiority of the advantage which the 
Russian merchant now enjoys over the British merchant. I know 
that a British merchant gave 1 per cent, to a person trading as a 



COMMERCIAL TREATY OE 1848. 395 



so evident that the Turkish government prepared for it. * But 
means were found to set them on a false track, that of devising 
a process for equalising the duty between the British and 
Russian by making the native dealer who sold to or bought 
from the Russian, pay an illegal tax. The plan is designated by 
one of our own agents, "a bold and unexpected attempt :" he 
attributed it to Turkey. It was met by a Russian " armed 
janissary " being sent to embark the goods " by force." f 

Russian merchant, whom I also know to trade as a Russian merchant 
in his name ; and I further know, that a sort of national pride alone 
has prevented the rest of the British merchants in Syria from doing 
the same." 

* " Even the Custom-house appaltators here, sensible of the ad- 
vantages enjoyed by the Russian trade, and forseeing the probability 
in consequence of a modification of the English Convention, have 
stipulated with the Government that they are to be indemnified for 
the loss they will sustain should the modification take place 

" Need a clearer proof be adduced of the advantages which Russia 
has gained by the Treaty, than the fact that a crowd of nominal 
Russian merchants has sprung up one hardly knows from vjhere, since 
it came into operation" — Conjoint Despatch of Colonel Rose and 
Me. Mooee {Consul- General for Syria and Consul of Bey rout.) 

f The Ambassadob. — " Upon my inquiring of the Minister of 
Foreign Affairs in ivhat manner the really important difference 
between 12 and 5 per cent, paid' by British merchants on exports and 
imports respectively, and the uniform duty of 3 per cent, paid on 
both by Russian traders was removed, his Excellency assured me that 
in both cases that difference (!) was levied upon the Turkish subject 
— in the former as a seller, in the latter as a purchaser." — Sir Stratford 
Canning Q&th Nov. 1842.) 

The Consul- G-eneeal. — " A Russian merchant, or at any rate 
trading as such, purchased lately a large quantity of silk, but the 
appaltator having been unable to discover the sellers or producers 
thereof, in order to exact the 9 per cent, export duty from them, 
objected to his so doing. . . . The cancellier proceeded to the 
Custom-house with a janissary armed, and declared his determination 
to embark the silk by force. . . . The Custom-house officer 
applied to Assad Pascha for support, to prevent its embarkation ; but 
in consequence of a communication from the Russian cancellier, his 
Excellency ordered the appaltators to allow the embarkation of the 
bales on the payment of 3 per cent, only!" — Col. Rose, 7th Sept., 1842. 



396 THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 



Puzzled and confounded by the working of a measure 
which, when in opposition, they had hastened to extol, the 
new administration now sent about to the consuls and 
merchants to ask their opinion ; this was the unanswerable 
question which they put " Shall we keep the third clause, 
or, abandoning it, take to the first ? " Here are the very words 
of the inevitable Lord Aberdeen : — 

"Whether the ^advantages under which British mer- 
chants labour are of such an extent as to render it more 
advantageous to claim the benefit of the First Article, and 
insist upon British merchants being placed on the same 
footing with Eussian merchants, although such a course 
might lead to the sacrifice of whatever advantages the British 
trader now enjoys under the Convention, by the substitution 
of fixed and for variable and arbitrary duties of import and 
export, and by the abolition of monopolies and other ancient 
sources of vexation and annoyance ? " 

There can be no alternative between two clauses of a Treaty; 
if you have something to choose between, you have nothing 
to stand upon, for there must be contradiction. But you 
had none by the first article, for it is general, and the obli- 
gations incurred by the third are special. The three volumes 
of correspondence tally with their text. They contain, how- 
ever, one passage of sense. 

" We cannot see how ou^r being placed 1 on the footing of 
the most favoured nation 5 can in any way subject us to 
6 variable and arbitrary duties of import and export. 5 The 
Eussian Merchants and others, under Eussian protection, are 
liable to no variable or arbitrary duty. 5 '* 

When Lord Palmerston is at length charged in the House 
with surrendering the rights of the " most favoured nation, 5 ' 
he answers : — 

" The hon. and learned gentleman really has not read the 
the Treaty. He may lift up his eyes at that statement ; but 
I repeat that he cannot have read the Treaty, or, if he has, 



* Mr. Scott of Sliimlan. 



COMMERCIAL TREATY OF 1848. 



397 



he has not read it correctly. He stated, that by the Treaty 
as signed, British subjects and ships were not placed upon 
the footing of the most favoured nation ; if the hon. Member 
will only look at the Treaty itself, he will see that the first 
Article states — 

'All former rights and privileges are confirmed, and all rights, 
privileges, and immunities, which the Sublime Porte now grants, or 
may hereafter grant, to the ships and subjects of any other foreign 
Power, or which it may suffer [not merely grant] the ships and sub- 
jects of any other foreign Power to enjoy, shall equally be granted, 
exercised, and enjoyed by the subjects and the ships of Great 
Britain.' 

If that is not securing to British subjects and ships all the 
advantages enjoyed by the most favoured nation, I do not 
know how the grant of those advantages could have been ex- 
pressed in words more clear or more comprehensive. It is not 
only so in the plain meaning of the words, But it has been so 
acknoicledged since by both parties. We haze acted upon that 
interpretation. Indeed, there could have been no inter- 
pretation required in the matter, because the words are as 
clear and as plain as words can be, and from them it is clear 
that British subjects and ships are upon the footing of the 
most favoured nation. 55 

This statement was received with loud cheers, Good God ! 
why print volumes of correspondence ! Varro did not despair 
after Cannse ; who can hope after this ? 

The British officials put up their prayers for one, one only, 
boon, — that Eussia may join ; then would be covered all their 
sin and hidden all their shame. Little did they see, and less 
did they care, that her adhesion would withdraw one immunity 
from British trade, for Bussian subjects trafficked in our goods, 
and lent their names to our merchants. When a favourable 
reception was to be managed for the Czar in London, the 
Bussian Cabinet promised to gratify their wishes. Lord 
Aberdeen solemnly announced the event to Parliament, 
assuring it that " Her Majesty's government had not been 



803 



THE LEVANT AND BED SEA. 



idle in this matter." The temporary end obtained, she 
continued to adhere to her "base, positive et invariable" 
through a fire of Blue Books, until in the midst of the din of 
the Spanish marriages, and the annexation of Cracow, she 
quietly, without the observation of a single soul, or the 
comment of a single journal — joined the Treaty. 

English Diplomacy now entered the haven of repose : the 
English Merchants were contented : in what age do we live 
when such a fact could not awaken even curiosity ? Could 
stultification be more perfect, or demonstration complete ? 

But already, in 1838, the Eussian Cabinet was preparing 
the occasion to shift its ground. An elaborate exposee of 
its ideas was transmitted to its ambassador at Constantinople 
and communicated to the consuls. In this document the 
same basis was assumed as that of the English Treaty, but 
doubts were entertained in consequences of its " loose 
wording," through which the Turkish Government might 
slip : the " isolation " of Eussia is represented as a pause 
until she has seen ce, what results shall manifest themselves." 
I In 1846 the desired results had consequently been mani- 
fested — were they favourable or unfavourable ? If the first, 
why impose on her trade a gratuitous burden of 12 per cent, 
and sacrifice all her exclusive advantages ? In that year she 
had usurped Cracow, while England and France were pro- 
testing against each other about a Treaty (Utrecht) which had 
ceased for fifty years to exist. If the second — if, in the 
words of one of her consuls "worse than the abuses were 
now reappearing, which had fallen into desuetude even 
before the Treaty was signed;" why give up the stringent 
clauses of the Treaty of Adrianople ? If she who has pro- 
claimed that clause the chief reward of her campaign of 
1829, abandons the faculty it confers to interfere in the 
internal administration of the Porte, it must be for something 
even better still. 

Against Eussia England will never strike a blow. The 
contest of the strong mind and the weak is not determined 
by the relative power of their bodies or by their bodies at all. 



COMMERCIAL TREATY OF 1848. 399 



Therefore did paramount importance attach to a measure 
which would have altered the relative bases of the power of 
Russia and Turkey. 

Every remarkable man for the last fifty years has prog- 
nosticated the extinction of the Western States and the 
triumph over them of Russia. Several of these were them- 
selves Sovereigns and Ministers, and had practical means of 
working out their thoughts. Not one of them has succeeded 
— not one of them has even approached towards the way to 
success. Russia owes infinitely more to the energy with 
which she has been opposed by men of first-rate genius 
and highest station, than to the devotedness with which 
she has been served either by her own officials or by the 
traitors whom she has at all times had at her disposal in 
foreign Cabinets. It is not the difficulty of the enterprise 
that has caused these failures. I take an illustration from 
the other hemisphere : 

Fourteen years ago, the plains watered by the Parana and 
the Plata, fertile as they are vast, where herds might multiply 
like the sands of the sea, towards which a tide of emigration 
had set in from Europe, gave promise of an enormous 
supply of hides and tallow. Internal dissensions arose, and 
England and France commenced thereupon a series of the 
strangest freaks that have ever been seen. One of the 
leading merchants was sent over in 1847 to see what could 
be done. He came to me with his case. After he had 
concluded his narrative, he asked me if I could explain the 
source of the malignity of which they were the object. I 
asked him in turn what were the articles of export — to 
what amount — what the probable increase without the in- 
terference, &c. ? He replied, that a million and a quarter 
sterling worth of hides, tallow, &c, were exported, and had 
they been let alone, or the matter once for all settled, they 
would be now exporting to the value of six, eight or ten 
millions. I then asked him the amount and nature of 
the exports from the Baltic. He commenced to reply, when 
suddenly, he stopped, and after a pause, exclaimed^ " Sir ! 



400 



THE LEVANT AND BED SEA. 



you have caused the scales to fall from my eyes." He 
then informed me of a variety of circumstances which 
had never struck him before, all indicating the connection 
of Eussia with those countries, and it even appeared that 
the brig of war which had been captured by the blockading 
squadron was a present from the Czar to Kosas. If a 
merchant did not understand the diplomatic value of the 
disturbance of the Plata, how should statesmen ? 

Thus have Pitt, Napoleon, Talleyrand, Gustavus III, failed. 
They knew nothing of commerce, and could not counteract a 
system of which commerce formed the basis. The proposed 
Treaty met her on this ground. 

Let it not be supposed that any wrong was here intended 
to Eussia : there was no purpose to injure the legitimate 
Baltic trade, and all that was proposed was, to allow the 
English merchant to buy on the same terms as in Eussia. 
The project might have its political side : it had also its 
commercial. It opened to England a new and a vast supply 
derived from a country where our export trade is only 
hampered by our inability to obtain returns. From Syria, 
we take one and sell forty. Eussia, for her raw materials, 
requires gold, and affords no market, far less a prospective 
field for our wares. With Turkey the whole transport would 
be effected in British bottoms. 

Had the British Minister been constrained, in 1838, to 
admit these high duties, he would subsequently have made 
some endeavours to reduce them. France and Austria had 
yielded unwillingly : he was sure of their backing : Eussia 
assumed to be on the same line ; not only she professed to 
desire unlimited freedom of trade, but she exacted it. How, 
then, is it that England could never obtain a single reduc- 
tion ? The little king of Greece was not so helpless.* 

* The British consul of Janina (12th July, 1843) arguing that it 
is easy to obtain reductions by taking advantage of concessions made 
oy other States, mentions " a secret understanding come to with a 
Hellenic merchant in 1841, for an abatement of duty on a cargo of 
wool j " another reduction of the duty on wool in favour of the in* 



COMMERCIAL TEEATY OF 1848. 401 



The Governments of Europe have lost the tithes, so that it 
is with the greatest difficulty that they can impose direct 
taxes, and they are driven to tax trade. The Turkish 
Treasury receives the tithes : what then would be its profit 
were grain free ? Ten per cent, is paid in every case on 
exportation, independently of any Customs' duty. The in- 
terest of the Turkish Government is therefore that of pro- 
prietor not of tax-gatherer; the tax-gatherer stops demand, 
renders unsaleable its goods and unrealisable its revenue. 

The English Minister then could have no scruples in seeking 
for a reduction which would have encountered no obstacle. 
Every province of the Ottoman Empire has become by this 
Treaty a foreign state for its neighbour, every change in the 
nature of an article subjects it to a new duty, and every 
change effected in a foreign article subjects it to the duty of 
a native produce. The Customers roam throughout the land 
levying Black Mail upon the villages, for to no other form 
of taxation can this imposition be compared.* 

Whether Turkey could supply grain to Europe or not, 
would have remained a problem had it not been for the 
dearth of 1846. 

The price of grain in Roumelia, on the threshing-floor, 
averages seven piastres the kilo, or one shilling and three- 
pence the English bushel. At the end of 1846, it began to 
rise, and soon attained twenty piastres ; and the outpouring 
commenced. Erom the walls of Yienna might be traced, 
along the plain, as far as eye could reach, double lines of 
waggons, the one arriving full, the other returning empty ; 
night and day, week after week, month after month, this 
stream continued to flow, and when the price no longer 

habitants from 24 piastres 24 paras to 21-10, " which privilege was 
also shared by Hellenic merchants," and that " the same rule was 
followed in a reduction of the duty on valonia to 40 piastres from 68 
piastres as established by our tariff :" and he says that he had, in 
consequence, claimed and obtained the same concessions for British 
merchants. 

* In a table of the farms belonging to the Grand Yizier, drawn up 
by Jonesco, GwmbruTc is a regular entry. 



402 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 



permitted exportation, the granaries were still full. By the 
Black Sea alone* twenty millions of kilos were exported, 
and Turkey received between two or three millions sterling. 
Had this supply not been forthcoming, this money would 
have gone to Eussia, while she might have increased the 
price, and thereby, the severity of the famine in Europe. 
This exportation was not the result of a particularly favourable 
season — the high price had tided traffic over the bar of the 
Tariff. It was on this that Eussia hastened to renounce the 
suggestive privileges which she had hitherto maintained. 

England has now put herself in Eussia's shoes. It is England 
that has to exert her influence to obstruct the development 
of the territorial resources of Turkey. Every attempt to 
facilitate trade is now broken by the interposition of the 
English embassy. " You have," said M. Thiers, on a me- 
morable occasion, " adopted the interests of Eussia for your 
own. You have nothing more to do." Say rather you have 
much to do. 

I trust that the foregoing pages will justify my declaration 
in the House of Commons the 23d of February, 1848. 

" I am prepared to prove, and I stake my character upon it, 
and the house will be justified in applying any censure to me 
if I fail, that in one negotiation which has been referred to 
to-night, viz., that of the Treaty of Turkey, there have been 
changes made in the stipulations, with the view and with the 
effect of securing the interests of Eussia. Sir, I am 
possessed of documents so numerous and minute, and of 

* During the year 1847, 1224 vessel were despatched with cargoes 
from the former, and 1638 from the latter, — a great part of which 
were British bottoms. The exports of grain from Ibraila, which, in 
1837, amounted to only 220,000 quarters, and in 1840, to 325,000 
quarters, attained in 1846, 750,000 quarters, and in 1847, 1,338,138 
quarters ; to which if we add about two-thirds for Gralatz, and about 
the same quantity for the Turkish ports, we have a total of nearly 
three millions of quarters exported to Constantinople and different 
ports in Europe in the course of one year. — (Report of a Cornfactor 
of Constantinople.) This statement is exclusive of Yama and 
Eoumelia. 



COMMERCIAL TEEATY OF 1851. 403 



testimony so consecutive, that no body of men, sitting down 
with the purpose of ascertaining the facts, can arrive at any 
other conclusion, save that of intentional falsification to serve 
the interests of a Foreign Power." 



It was in the course of the foregoing transaction that was 
brought home to me the idea of treachery in the bosom 
of the British State and Cabinet. In this volume it is used 
as the Key of all transactions. It therefore appears to me 
that this is the place where I may be justified in approaching 
it directly, explaining the position in which I have been 
placed — the motives under which I have acted, and the 
steps which I have taken. I owe this as a duty to the 
reader, and I conceive that an impartial consideration of my 
statement is a duty which he owes to me. 

In the course I have pursued I had no option. I had the 
misfortune to know what it would have been guilty to conceal. 
I was fully convinced that by discharging my duty I must 
incur obloquy; whilst by closing my lips I could have 
secured the highest objects of personal ambition. I was as 
one who by accident found himself in the midst of a con- 
spiracy, or witness to the preparation of a murder. A portion 
of the circumstances to which I refer is before the reader. 
I may have been mistaken in my conclusions, but I acted 
upon them so as to bring to evidence their truth or my 
mistake. I laid them before my Sovereign. 

The Minister, the object of the charge, immediately changed 
his course, and adopted the very measures which he had 
repudiated. It w T as my misfortune to believe this change to 
be real, within two years he had frustrated every measure he 
had adopted and had reverted to the course he had abandoned. 
It was then that I publicly proclaimed to the Nation what 
I had before privately presented to its Sovereign. 

I now repaired a neglect of which I had been guilty — that 
of examining this Minister's previous conduct. It was not 



404 THE LEVANT AXD EED SEA. 

till the month of June, 1838, that I read his speech delivered 
on the 1st of June, 1829, and which if it had fallen into my 
hands two years before would have entirely altered the 
Foreign Policy of this country ; that speech was delivered 
when there was no suspicion abroad, yet that and similar 
speeches were of so striking a nature as to create suspicion 
even in the mind of Sir Eobert Peel, who went so far as to 
insinuate that Lord Palmerston was then the Eepresentative 
of Eussia in the British Parliament. I next turned to his 
conduct on other fields; for this inquiry materials were 
supplied by the documents which then began to be poured 
forth, in consequence of the sudden expansion of England's 
diplomatic action. In every one I found the same result. 
Of these I published elaborate expositions which were 
re-echoed in the columns of the Leading Journals. No 
refutation in any case was attempted. I endeavoured by 
every means to bring the matter to adjudication. I appealed 
to Lord Melbourne, as head of the Government, and as 
member of the Privy Council : I did so to Sir E. Peel. The 
charge was made not figuratively, or in the spirit of invective; 
but practically, with a view to forcing an inquiry. Finally, 
after long endeavours, I succeeded in bringing it into the 
House. 

These circumstances are at least evidence that my con- 
viction was complete, and such a conviction had it regarded 
only the life or property of an individual, no conscientious 
man could despise. 

The reception which the charge met with in the House 
affects neither my conduct nor the merits of the case ; that 
belongs to the character of the body. " It is impossible to 
deny," says Mr. Macaulay, " that impeachment, though it is a 
fine ceremony, and though it may have been useful in the 
seventeenth century, is not a proceeding from which much 
good can now be expected. "Whatever confidence may be 
placed in the decision of the Peers on an appeal arising out 
of ordinary litigation, it is certain that no man has the least 
confidence in their impartiality, when a great public fane- 



COMMERCIAL TREATY OP 1848. 405 



tionary, charged with a great state crime, is brought to their 
bar. They are all politicians. There is hardly one among 
them whose vote on an impeachment may not be confidently 
predicted before a witness has been examined : and, even 
if it were possible to rely on their justice, they would still be 
quite unfit to try such a cause." The authority of this 
writer will not be questioned as regards his knowledge of 
his time \ and according to him the men who for all moral 
or political purposes control, or rather constitute England, 
are without character, and when not frivolous, dishonest. 
This is his judgment, not mine ; for less than this he cannot 
imply when he denies the capacity of Parliament to entertain 
the gravest of charges and to perform the most solemn of 
duties. 

The matter, however, was not dismissed as frivolous or 
vexatious, far less were proceedings taken against the two 
members by whom it was brought forward : public morality 
had not sunk to the pitch of pretending to inquire where 
they had resolved not to examine. The subject was simply 
dropped, and committed to the charge of the future his- 
torian. 

Towards that history, however, a valuable contribution is 
furnished in Lord Palmerston's five hours 5 reply. It was 
continued during two sittings of the 25th of February and 
the 1st of March, and in it preeminently shine the ela- 
borate memory and consummate tact of the speaker. But 
there is not a single assertion of his accuser refuted, or even 
met. It is composed of three portions — Silence, mystification, 
and superfluity : Silence where the charge was of a nature 
intelligible to the audience, such as, for instance, the note to 
Prince Talleyrand rejecting the proposed intervention on the 
part of France and Austria for the support of Poland, on the 
betrayal to the Eussian Embassy of the Turkish commu- 
nication of the draft of the Treaty of Hunkiar Skelessi ; 
Mystification in respect to matters of which his audience 
knew nothing, a specimen of which we have just seen in 
reference to the Turkish Commercial Treaty ; Superfluity, in 



406 



THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 



defending himself against a variety of charges not made, eight 
or nine in number. 

By a process, " Parliamentary, but perhaps not the less 
discreditable," I was forced into speaking before him, and 
it was only after I was thus deprived of the faculty of reply, 
that he commenced his speech, in full security against any 
possibility of exposure. 

A circumstance most significant is, that the accused 
Minister sought the member by whom the charge was made, 
and was content to accept his public co-operation and 
private friendship without the forms of recantation or 
apology. This is a fact to have weight, even in times when 
law is without force and public character a marketable 
commodity. 

The member in question (Mr. Anstey) did not derive from 
me his judgment of the Minister : he to me expressed that 
judgment before he was aware of mine. In respect to matters 
which he derived from me, nothing could exceed the labour 
which he devoted to their examination, nor the close scru- 
tiny which he applied to their details. Other legal gentlemen 
assisted in preparing the case. My entire correspondence, 
without the reservation of a single letter was placed con- 
jointly in their hands, and whatever the motives which may 
now be attributed to Mr. Anstey, it is evident that his first 
object must have been to assure himself of the truth : his 
recent legal appointment by the present Government speaks 
for itself. 

I cannot dismiss this matter without bearing my testimony 
to the admirable manner in which the case was handled. As 
an effort of memory it was stated by a veteran and most in- 
fluential politician, to have exceeded any he had ever listened 
to in that House. It was no doubt called "a failure" by those 
who if they had capacity to comprehend had not courage to 
listen ; but it will remain for aftertimes a landmark to guide 
the future historian through the mazes of their selfish dexterity 
and the quagmires of their ephemeral success. 

Hallam has elaborately shown how the secrecy involved in 



COMMERCIAL TREATY OF 1848. 407 



the Cabinet Council, renders judicial proof of malversation, 
or of treason next to an impossibility ; but there is a still 
greater obstacle to moral evidence in the present admitted 
practice of carrying on public business by private letters, and 
giving, when they are given, public documents in extract ; so 
that it is only in exceptional cases that in carrying out a 
purpose, the intention would require to be manifested, or 
that a trace of the proceeding need be left, after it has been 
effected. 

Those exceptional cases, however, are sufficiently numerous 
and important to furnish all the proof that would be required 
were it not that the self-love of colleagues and opponents, and 
indeed of all the statesmen of this country and of the other 
countries of Europe is enlisted against the charge. The 
parties among the public cannot endure a reference of events 
to causes independent of those maxims by which each would 
rule the world ; and the morality of the day reveals itself not 
in susceptibility for the honour of an accused Statesman, but 
in candour that denies the possibility of guilt. 

The change that is considered too heinous to be possible, 
is that of being " Russian, 55 but certainly it has no claim to 
originality. It has for years been ringing through Europe, 
and turn by turn applied to Emperors, Editors, Sultans, 
Chartists, Viziers, Arch- Chancellors, Ministers, Ambassadors, 
Regents, Palatines, Primates, Bishops, Kings, and Dragomans. 
On no lips has it been found more often, or with more deadly 
effect, than on those of Lord Palmerston ; he was, in fact, 
the first to give to it its odious character : by it he upset a 
dynasty in Prance ; expelled a Regency from Greece ; de- 
stroyed, or attempted to destroy, a ministry in Turkey, 
and always using it for Russia 5 s ends. He has brought it 
against myself, but there is this difference between the two 
allegations, his was made in a whisper — mine openly pro- 
claimed. 

Nor do I stand alone in this. There are several mem- 
bers of the public service who have come to this conclusion, 
severally on their own grounds. If not universal it is a 



408 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 



very common opinion amongst European residents in the 
East. It was for a time at last entertained by Prince 
Metternich ; a document published during the troubles 
of Vienna, show that it is entertained by M. Prokesch; 
it has been unhesitatingly asserted in the German Ency- 
clopaedia (Conversatizions Lexicon) and finally the present 
Government in England, constrained to admit him into the 
Cabinet, dare not confide to him the Foreign Department. 
What Minister has ever before been exposed to the like 
suspicions, and how could an English Minister be suspected 
without grounds ? 

The question is not one of condemnation but of inquiry — 
whether or not there be a prima facie case. 



Note I. 

DIFFERENCE OF THE TWO TREATIES ACCORD- 
ING TO LORD PALMERSTON, March 1, 1848. 

(See p. 392.) 

" This I will say, that the Treaty as concluded does not differ 
in any material respect from the draft of the Treaty as settled by 
the Board of Trade and by the Foreign Office, and as sent to 
Mr. Urquhart to be proposed to the Turkish Government. " 

" I can state to the house the differences between the draft 
of the Treaty sent out in consequence of communications be- 
tween Mr. Urquhart, the Board of Trade, and the Foreign 
Office, and the treaty concluded by Lord Ponsonby. The 
draft provided that British goods should pay only the import 
duty of 3 per cent, after which they might be transported to, 
and sold in, any part of the Ottoman dominions, without 
any further payments. The Treaty in addition to the 3 per 
cent, import duty, laid on a further duty of 2 per cent, upon 
the transport and sale of goods ; and beyond that no other 
duty is to be paid in any part of the Ottoman dominions. 
This tvas one of the things to which in negotiation we were 
obliged to submit. Nobody can suppose, especially in arrang- 
ing commercial transactions between two countries, that you 
can go with a draft treaty in one hand, and a pen in the 



NOTES. 



409 



other, and say to a Foreign Minister, c There, Sir, sign that 
treaty, or jump out of the window,' You cannot do that, 
therefore, you must negotiate. The draft makes no provisions 
with rega?*d to foreign goods purchased in Turkey by British 
subjects with the view of their being again sold in Turkey. 
This teas an omission in the draft (!) but the Treaty pro- 
vides that foreign goods so purchased may be resold upon 
the same conditions as Turkish goods (!). The draft allows 
the Porte to levy upon goods exported a duty not exceeding 
the rate of 3 per cent. (!) ; and in return it allows British 
subjects to purchase all kinds of goods in the Ottoman 
dominions either for resale or exportation, subject only to the 
payment of the transport duty on such goods, and to the tolls 
demanded for the maintenance of the roads along which 
the goods are conveyed : the Treaty limits the export duty to 
3 per cent. (!), and admits of duties being levied upon goods 
purchased by British subjects for resale in Turkey to the 
same amount as those levied upon subjects of the most favoured 
nations (!). It further stipulates with regard to goods re- 
exported, and which may not have paid interior duties, that 
British subjects shall pay in lieu of such interior duties, one 
fixed duty of 9 per cent. (!). It was a great object with us to 
abolish these interior duties (!), which were a great obstacle to 
the progress of British manufactured goods in Turkey, and 
which, being made arbitrarily at the caprice of the Governors 
of the provinces, were uncertain in their amount, and 
excessively vexatious in their mode of being levied. The 
draft provides that no duties shall be levied on goods in 
tramitu : the Treaty limits the duties on goods in transitu 
to the 3 per cent, impost (!). The draft does not allude 
to the point I am now about to state. The Treaty specifies 
in detail the various ports of the Ottoman Empire at which 
it is applicable (!), and records the consent of the Porte to 
other powers settling their commercial matters upon the 
same basis (!). Of course it was intended to bring all other 
Powers within the same regulations ; and this is the memo- 
randum I have upon the draft (!). The above seems to be the 
essential points to be discussed. I think I have now stated 
enough with regard to the commercial Treaty. " 



13 



410 



THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 



Note II. 
TUEKISH COMMERCE. 



The Prussian statistician, Hubner, makes the total exports 
of Turkey, for the year 1850, 13 millions, and its imports 
10-|- millions sterling. 





Imports from Turkey. 


Exports to Turkey. 


England 


29,903,772 


26,895,160 


Austria 


22,058,666 


22,515,333 


France 


17,027,420 


11,256,000 


Russia 


5,434,418 


7,479,484 


Belgium 


293,330 


1,036,533 


Netherlands 


571,360 


458,000 


Greece 


1,312,500 


333,000 


United States 


1,331,854 


341,599 


Hamburg 


694,940 


57,105 


Bremen 


70,601 


5,635 


Portugal 


9,946 




Prussian thalers 


78,728,807 


70,377,849 



The exports from England have increased from 1830 to 
1850 sixfold, the declared value being in the last year 
£3,100,000. 

Since the opening of our ports for foreign grain our trade 
%vith Russia has diminished 50 per cent., that with Turkey 
hos increased 50 per cent.; but no grain comes from those 
provinces of Turkey where the English Treaty has taken 
effect. We imported directly and indirectly, in 1850, from 
the Danube, above two millions of quarters, and sent to 
brail and Galatz £998,000 value of goods. 



411 



CHAPTER IV. 
The Med Sea — Egypt. 

" Every great man who lias looked at the map of the world has 
thought of Egypt." — THiEiiS. 



Egypt was of old a broken reed, it piercing the hand that 
leant upon it : the Scriptural proverb has proved itself true 
in our times. The extreme of insignificance to which this 
country has attained in contrast to its ancient pre-eminence 
of splendour, is not however harmless : its wonderful geo- 
graphical position gives to it an extrinsic value, which, though 
existing in all times, acquires a new importance from the 
gradually interlocking around it of the great Empires ; 
England has a dominion in India, France a settlement in 
Africa, and Eussia looks to subverting Turkey. 

It is now twenty -three years since Europe was all but 
plunged in a war, not because a new Napoleon had made it 
the stepping-stone to India, but merely because of a quarrel 
between its Pasha and the Sultan. By that event the tenure 
of Egypt was practically altered, its dependence on the Porte 
shaken, and the chances increased of its becoming a bone of 
contention. The Powers then interposed to force the Sultan 
to concede to its ruler a hereditary title in violation of the 
maxims of that empire, and in opposition to the principles of 
its restoration. This change was merely nominal: so long as 
Mehemet Ali lived and ruled, the power of Egypt was, so 
to say, a personal matter; it disappeared with him. On 
his demise Egypt would have merged into its anterior con- 
dition ; but that under this arrangement the new Pasha, 
neither being appointed by the Sultan, nor having strength 
in himself to stand against him, has to lean for support 



412 



THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 



on Foreign Governments, and will receive it only from 
those who are inimical to his Sovereign.* 

All that is said of danger to that Empire from disaffection 
of its Christian subjects is idle breath ; its danger is from a 
Mussulman Schism and in such a Schism Egypt disaffected 
must play the first part ; it is a Mussulman Province , it 
stands between Turkey and the Holy Places, the possession 
of which is a vital matter ; its Ruler may control Syria, and 
dispose of the predatory Arabs of the Desert, and although 
regiments of Eellahs may not again traverse Asia Minor, the 
impression of past events remains, and Egypt in the hands 
of a Foreign Power may shake the throne of the Sultans to 
its foundation. 

Amongst us the sinew of war is money : in the East, as 
the reader of the ' Arabian Nights ' well knows, it is rice. 
It affords the largest amount of nutriment in the smallest 
space, is of all grains that which is least liable to dete- 
rioration ; it is the accustomed food of the people, not like 
wheat constituting a portion of the diet, but the whole of 
it. Rice comes from Egypt : cutting off Egypt is stopping 
the supplies, and this is its moral as well as its physical effect. 

In a war with Russia, Egypt being the province furthest 
removed, is that from which supplies may be most readily 
drawn ; it is therefore of the utmost importance to detach 
it from its allegiance. It was by experience of its value 
that Catherine called Egypt one of the horns of the 
Crescent (the other was Greece), of both of which that 
Luminary had to be shorn before, according to her opinion, 
it could lapse into her amorous embrace. In fact she pre- 

* I wrote the following words a year before the Treaty of 1840 

was signed. 

" The power of Mehemet Ah must fall with himself. The intro- 
duction of hereditary succession, a principle at variance with the 
laws and administration of the empire, can only be proposed for the 
}mrpose of perpetuating differences between Egypt and Constanti- 
nople, and allowing the Powers of Europe to interfere under colour 
of rights conceded to their intervention." 



THE BED SEA— EGYPT. 



413 



hided to her great war with Turkey by a traitorous intelli- 
gence with the Beys of Cairo ; in consequence of its discovery 
that war was declared against her by the Turks. "The 
use which she made of her first successes was to offer Egypt 
to France, if she would join in dismembering the Ottoman 
Empire." * 

A footing in Egypt thus appears to have a value beyond 
the weakening ot the power of Turkey. It may serve to 
raise up other enemies to that Empire, to convert its pro- 
tectors into spoilers, and to place those protectors themselves 
at variance. The proposition of Catherine to Louis XVI 
recalls to mind Poland and her proposition to Frederick 
the Great and Joseph II : we have there seen how, by 
tempting neighbours with territory, she can convert them 
into dependents. Egypt was far off and could only be 
reached by sea ; but as Poland furnished her the occasion for 
occupying the military Powers of the North, so did Egypt 
for the maritime Powers of the West. Egypt could not be 
divided, there is but one Nile : if it could be possessed by 
one only, it could be offered to two. At the time that the 
French Government was thus tempted, England was alarmed 
at the designs of Catherine on Turkey, and preparing to 
oppose them ; had the French Government yielded to the 
temptation, England must have immediately sent an expe- 
dition to Egypt, as she did a few years later on a similar 
occasion, and England and France being engaged in war, she 
would have disembarrassed herself of the opposition of the 
one, and acquired in the other a partitioning ally against 
the Ottoman Empire. It must not be supposed that she 
risked even the ultimate possession of Egypt, for that pro- 
vince must remain dependent on Constantinople, whether 
possessed by Turkey or by herself; besides neither England 
nor France could endure its possession by the other. When 
they will have exhausted themselves in a war respecting it, 
they will be ready enough to submit to its occupation by 



* "Progress of Kussia in the East." 



414 



THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 



her : they are the clients, Turkey the oyster, and she the 
lawyer. 

In the often quoted Testament of Peter, the inspiring of 
rivalry is impressively laid down as the rule for his successors. 
Its effects are thus tersely described : " Inspire France or 
Austria with the ambition of universal dominion, such hatred 
will then arise between them, that they will destroy each 
other/ 5 Since that period the relative positions of these and 
the other States of Europe have been materially altered, and 
the method holds under a new distribution of the parts. It is 
not two predominant States to which the maxim has now to be 
applied ; the passion of ambition has subsided, but jealousy, 
which has taken its place, is no less available for setting 
nations by the ears. Wherever there is affinity of dispositions 
and equality of power, such as, for instance, in Denmark and 
Sweden, Eussia aud Austria, Turkey and Persia, England and 
France, she finds ample fields for the perfecting of this art. 
Since the peace England and Prance have been five times 
brought to the verge of war merely by jealousy t twice in 
reference to Spain, once to Tahiti, once to Morocco, and 
once to Egypt. It can only be by some most unexpected 
combination that any of the other countries can afford 
again the life chance ; but Egypt is in every respect pre- 
pared for it. 

There is no other portion of the Ottoman Empire in designs 
on which it would be possible to involve any two Powers. It 
is not only the only portion of the Ottoman Empire, but the 
only district in the globe, for the possession of which two 
Foreign Powers can be brought into competition. The 
United States may covet Cuba from Spain, or Canada from 
England ; France may seek to take the Ehenish frontier from 
Prussia ; Eussia may be as desirous of wresting India from 
England, or the Danubian Principalities from Turkey ; but of 
Egypt alone can it be said that it is equally coveted by 
Eussia, by France, and by England. Has not France already 
occupied, has not England driven her out — was not this the 
occasion of the last war that desolated Europe ? Now, too, 



THE BED SEA— EGYPT. 



415 



the authority of the Porte has been shaken in that province by 
an international compact, in virtue of which you have bound 
yourselves to interfere in its internal administration : that 
compact was signed in London, to the exclusion of Prance. 

It is a singular fact that the differences between Philip 
Augustus and Eichard the First arose out of the desires of 
the French to direct the efforts of the Crusaders upon Egypt. 
Innocent III adopted with fervour the idea, and it was car- 
ried into execution by Louis IX, though the expedition failed 
from his yielding to an inferior temptation. At another 
period the plan was revived by Cardinal Ximenes, who 
engaged his sovereign, Emmanuel of Portugal, in a coalition 
for carrying it into effect. That expedition in like manner 
was directed to another object. So soon as the Portuguese 
had established themselves in India, Albuquerque, judging 
that the Nile and the Eed Sea might despoil his country of 
his conquests and frustrate his magnificent schemes, conceived 
the bold design of turning the course of the Nile from the 
Mediterranean into the Eed Sea, and so render Egypt a desert. 

The next European name of celebrity connected with 
Egypt was that of Leibnitz. When Louis XIV was about to 
engage in the disastrous wars with Holland, Leibnitz ad- 
dressed to him his celebrated Memoir, proposing the occu- 
pation of Egypt as a more effectual means of crushing Hol- 
land. His argument equally applies to England, except that 
the Dutch had commerce only in India or Colonies, but not 
dominion : — 

" I maintain," says he, "that Holland will be more easily 
conquered in Egypt than in her own breast, for she will be 
robbed with ease of that which renders her flourishing— the 
treasures of the East. The difference of the two methods of 
attack has this of remarkable, that she will not feel the 
blow directed at her on this side, until it is struck home ; 
and if she does foresee it she will be powerless to parry it. 
* * * If the means of execution are kept secret as well as the 
real end towards which they tend, ail will have been done to 
secure the success of an enterprise in which is involved the 



416 THE LEVANT AND BED SEA. 



possession of India, the commerce of Asia, and the dominion 
of the universe." 

Napoleon's expedition has been supposed to be based 
upon the same views and directed to the same end s he has, 
however, himself avowed that these were struck out as after- 
thoughts. 

<£ I had raised myself by the sword alone ; to restore it to 
the scabbard was to deprive myself of the means of rising 
higher ; I had bestridden too brilliant a charger to allow him 
to return quietly to his stall; I apprehended the dangers of 
a prolonged inaction, and exhausted my ingenuity to cause 
it to cease. Europe offered me nothing ; I planned an expe- 
dition to Egypt. This was to me at first but an expedient ; 
burying myself, however, in idea, in the consequences which 
might be drawn from such an enterprise, if carried to a fortu- 
nate issue, I was agreeably surprised to discover that France 
might derive from it incalculable advantages ; England con- 
curred with me in the same opinion, and posterity will say 
that she was right." 

The far-reaching mind of Kleber had, however, not required 
that he should cross the Mediterranean to apprehend the 
full consequences of the step. He writes to the Directory : — 
i: I know all the importance of the possession of Egypt ; 
while yet in Europe I used to say that it was for France, 
the fulcrum by means of which she might shake the system 
of Commerce in the four quarters of the globe. 55 

England had the good fortune to expel the French, and the 
good sense not to put herself in their place. TTith these 
events Eussia had nothing to do ; but as we have already 
seen, eight years before the expedition of Napoleon, she had 
proposed one to the French Government of the old regime : 
if that of the Eest oration reverted to the project, and pre- 
pared for it by the occupation of Algiers, it is not to be sup- 
posed that she was a mere indifferent spectator. There is a 
mass of evidence which I have collected elsewhere which 
establishes the interest that she took in the quarrel, and the 
helping hand she lent to the denouement : she must have 



THE RED SEA — EGYPT. 



417 



been blind if she had not seen, and insane if she had not 
advanced, a project fraught with such vast consequences, in 
the distracting of the internal condition of France and in com- 
promising the external position of Turkey. 

France now standing to Turkey as a partitioning power, 
the latter must apprehend that Egypt will next fall:* that 
her new African neighbour looks to Syria, she has ample 
reasons for suspecting. Can England whose intercourse with 
India is now carried on through the Red Sea, remain 
indifferent, and will not her jealousy act as an additional spur 
to the ambition of France ? A new Napoleon whom Russia has 
helped to a throne at Paris, immediately assumes for his title 
that of " Defender of the Holy Places," which Europe soon 
learns to be of such vast importance, that the holding of the ' 
keys by this or that sexton involves war between two great 
Empires. 

The restoration was upset by the African expedition, the 
dynasty which replaced it was upset by the Algerine army and 
system — so deeply is France implicated in these projects, 
the aim and end of which is Egypt ; for Algiers on the one 
side and Syria on the other, are connected with the affairs of 
Europe only in so far as they are connected with Egypt : 
the importance of Egypt is with reference to the traffic 
of the Red Sea, and the means of communication with 
India; the solution is therefore to be found in the open- 
ing of the canal of Suez, and the establishing of its neu- 
trality by common consent. This is what Russia has to 
prevent. 

But the dynasty that was upset in 1830, and that which 
again fell in 1848, had both been placed upon the throne by 
Russia ; she has then an equal motive in knocking down as 
in setting up ; whom she sets up assuredly she will knock 
down. It would be well for himself and for Europe if the 

* During the French occupation the fortifications of Alexandria 
were commenced under the celebrated Cretin : since the occupation 
of Algiers, the French Government has seized every opportunity to 
urge the strengthening of those works. 

18 ^ 



413 



THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 



present ruler of France would consider before it is too late 
the fate of Lis predecessors. His own experience has shown 
with what ease anything can be clone with the French. 

The Ottoman Empire presents two salient geographical 
features, the Dardanelles and the Isthmus of Suez ; the one 
opening, the other obstructing, the communication of the 
central portion of the globe. Since the invention of gun- 
powder, which ha3 placed a padlock upon the Dardanelles, 
that strait has been in the hands of a power which did not 
seek to use it against other nations. Possessing it, Eussia 
would have in her hands the seas and continents, the passages 
of the north and south, and the bread of Europe, and could at 
any moment paralyse the east of Europe and the west of Asia. 
The importance of the Isthmus of Suez is in like manner 
veiled by being closed. By keeping it so until it falls into 
her possession, she retains the overland traffic to the east 
and her check over India. When it is in her possession, she 
may indeed open it, but it will be for herself. 

The effectual control which England possesses over Eussia 
is commercial. Russia's power being exclusively military 
cannot be brought to bear directly on England, so that she 
is without any possible counterpose (diplomatic considerations 
apart) until she shall have advanced sufficiently towards 
India to establish a countercheck. "From the moment/' 
says Sir J. M'Neill, fC that she occupies this position, it will 
become necessary so to augment our anny in India, especially 
the European part of it, as to be prepared for the con- 
tingencies that may arise out of her proximity. This will 
be a large addition to our national expenditure, which will 
become permanent ; because, if Eussia were at Herat, ice 
could no longer send, out our troops by sea as quickly as site- 
could march them by land." The calculation of relative 
distance is here based upon the passage round the Cape. 
With a canal opened to the Eed Sea, and that route be- 
coming the ordinary course of communication, the troops 
would be forwarded by steam, and India brought two months 
closer 10 England ; by the same blow the schemes of opening 



THE RED SEA— EGYPT. 



4iy 



the Overland Trade by the Danube and the Euxine would 
be laid prostrate. 

The Ottoman Empire to convulse, England and France to 
be set at variance, the direct communication between England 
and India to stop, and ultimately the dominion of the Indian 
Ocean secured — such are the ends which Kussia may advance 
through Egypt. 

The objects of England are, first, to prevent Russia's inter- 
ference ; secondly, to prevent the authority of the Porte from 
being shaken ; thirdly, to prevent any difference arising 
between herself and France upon the subject ; fourthly, to 
obtain the opening of the canal by a common understanding 
witu Turkey and with Prance, the first of which would gladly 
see the enterprise undertaken, the second of which has already 
exerted herself to bring it about. 



420 



CHAPTEE V. 
The Canal of Suez. 



"Kecho commenced the digging of a Canal, but was frightened 
by some oracular words of the priests." 



The opening up of the passage from the Eed Sea to the 
Mediterranean, a work associated with the glories of the 
Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Caliphs, was a task which 
ought to have been vindicated to herself, by the ruler of the 
ocean and the mistress of India. The Pharaohs did not 
supply China with woollens, nor the Ptolemies, Hindostan 
with cottons ; the Caliphs were not rulers of the Deccan : 
none of them claimed superiority in the world by mechani- 
cal enterprise, or commercial ambition. England, with the 
dominion and the commerce of the East, with the dominion 
and the command of the seas, with wealth in one hand, and 
steam in the other, has had no thought of bringing India and 
the Eastern hemisphere to her doors. If we had been igno- 
rant of history, geography might have invited us to the 
attempt ; and without surveys past events might have sug- 
gested the enterprise. 

The physical difficulties are nothing; the dangers of the 
navigation of the Eed Sea have disappeared. We have now 
the aid of locks and steam; we have illimitable capital 
and endless inventions. If, therefore, a canal had even 
proved impracticable in ancient times, that would be no 
argument now. What then are we to say of those who, 
despite the evidence of its former existence, pronounce it an 
impossibility ?* 

* Mr. Gralloway was the first, I believe, to speak of " impossibiHty," 
but he qualifies it as "financial" Mr. Stephenson makes the matter 



THE CANAL OE SUEZ. 



421 



The canal is mentioned by all the old writers, Herodotus, 
Pliny, Diodorus Siculus, &c. It was in the Eoman period 
restored under Adrian. Again closed up by the shifting 
sands, it was opened as soon as the Arabs had got possession 
and established themselves on the Nile. The conqueror of 
that country, Amru, completed the work,* and it remained 
open for 120 years, until it again fell amidst the schisms of 
Abassides and Ommaides. 

Scarcely had Napoleon a sun-rise free, when he rode forth to 
the desert, in search of the traces of the ancient work, and 
was the first to discover it ; he then ordered the well-known 
survey. When it was brought to him, he asked whether the 
reopening was a project feasible, and being answered that it 
was easy, and even offered greater facilities than it had pre- 
sented before, he said, — " Well, it is a great undertaking ; 
publish a report, and force the Turkish Government to find 
in its execution, profit and glory. 55 If it presented greater 
facilities in the time of Napoleon than in those of Necho and 
Amru, how much greater are those it offers to-day ? Then 
there was no steam : it was not for Erance, as it is for 
England, a domestic matter. 

The total distance, by the French report, from Suez to 
Tyneh, on the Mediterranean, is 180,852 metres, or less than 
ninety miles. The cost is estimated at 30,000,000 francs, or 
£1,250,000 sterling (not more than a railroad from Yarna 
to Silistria, or from Alexandria to Cairo), they further estimate 
at some hundred millions of acres the irrigable land that would 

very difficult, by reason of an asserted want of scour, and calculates 
the cost at £8,000,000. Both these gentlemen were railwaynien and 
had counter-projects ; and, besides they were both under the in- 
fluence of the British consul at Alexandria, if not of the Foreign 
Office in Downing Street. 

# The Egyptians, alarmed at the threatened drain of provisions^ 
succeeded in persuading Amru that the difficulties he would have 
to encounter were insurmountable ; probably from the reverse of 
" the want of scour." The Caliph, however, saw more clearly into 
the motives of the Egyptians than his lieutenant. 



THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 



be recovered. I have not had the opportunity of examining 
the surveys of M. Linan, but they are understood to be even 
more favourable and at a lower estimate than that of the 
French scientific commission. 

The French calculated the Eed Sea about thirty feet higher 
in level than the Mediterranean : this the English railway 
engineers have taken upon themselves to deny; I am not 
aware upon what data : the aqueous and atmospheric currents 
would suggest the inference, even if the fact had not been 
established by positive survey, of a higher level at the western 
extremity of the Eed Sea, than at the eastern of the Mediter- 
ranean.* 

There is a competition between two lines : the one from 
Suez to the Nile, at the ancient city of Bubastis ; the other 
from Suez direct to the Mediterranean, at the Pelusiac or 
Eastern mouth of the Nile. But it is immaterial to discuss 
their relative merits, as the most cumbersome and expensive 
w T ou!d yet be sufficiently remunerative and practical. In 
ancient times the line to Bubastis was no doubt preferable 
because they were destitute of our means for shortening 
labour, and a passage was not required for vessels of the 
dimensions of those which now navigate the Indian Ocean : 
still the ancient canal was of depth sufficient (30 feet) to float 
line-of* battle ships, and the canal of Omar was finished in six 
months, so that on the seventh vessels floated through it, 

* " The surface of all the seas that communicate one with another 
must be regarded as generally perfectly equal in respect of mean 
elevation. Prevailing, winds and currents, however, in extensive 
land-locked seas, the Eed Sea, for example, produce permanent, 
though still inconsiderable, differences of level. At the Isthmus 
of Suez, the level of the Eed Sea is from 24 to 36 feet above 
that of the Mediterranean at different horns of the da v. The 
form of the canal (the Straits of Babelmanded), by which the Indian 
Ocean communicates with the Eed Sea being such, that the waters 
find a readier access than outlet, appears to assist in producing this 
remarkable, permanent, superior elevation of the surface of the Eed 
Sea, which was already known to the ancients." — Zfumboldfs Cosmos, 
vol. i. p. 329. 



THE CANAL OF SUEZ. 



423 



carrying the grain of Egypt to Mecca. An English engineer 
officer, Captain Vetch, who has surveyed both lines decides in 
favour of the direct one ; he points out a consideration not 
to be neglected, the greater specific gravity of the waters of 
the Eed Sea, which, in the discharge at the Pelusiac mouth, 
would clear out the deposit from the Nile, which the current 
from the Mediterranean always carries eastward. His esti- 
mate, including the works at both entrances, slightly exceeds 
two millions sterling. There lies dormant a sum of money suffi- 
cient for the enterprise, mid which the Court of Directors, with 
the consent of the Government would dispose of for this purpose. 

Independently of India, audits 150 millions of inhabitants, 
this canal would shorten by six weeks the trade of England 
with nearly 420 millions of souls,* and diminish the charges 
on the double voyage of the large vessels by at least £2000. 
Amongst these populations there are none who are our rivals ; 
they are all, or would be, our customers. The opening of this 
passage would be equivalent to the acquisition of a second 



India. 

POPULATION. 

* Abyssinia 2,500,000 

Africa (eastern) say 10,000,000 

Arabia, say 2,500,000 

Australia and New Zealand .... 500,000 

Ava 3,500,000 

Borneo ' . 1,500,000 

Ceylon 1,500,000 

China 350,000,000 

Cochin China, and Cambodia . . . 4,000,000 

Java 10,000,000 

Madagascar and Zangibar, Mauritius and Bourbon 2,500,000 

Malacca 500,000 

Persia 9,000,000 

The Philippines 3,000,000 

Siam 2,500,000 

Sumatra 3,000.000 

Tonquin s 12,000,000 



418,500,000 



424 THE LEVANT AND RED SEA. 



If it has not been so, it is tacitly referred to indisposition 
upon the part of the Turkish Government — a supposition 
which receives weight from the resistance which it has opposed 
to the Cairo Railway, and to the Euphrates Expedition. 
That resistance is, however, attributable to other causes. The 
following incident will assist in judging of the dispositions of 
the Porte, and of the nature of the obstructions likely to be 
thrown in the way. 

Colonel Chesney, at the close of 1834, having by unwearied 
exertions succeeded in forcing on the Foreign Office the plan 
for the navigation of the Euphrates, it was announced to the 
Embassy at Constantinople, that a demand was to be for- 
warded by the next messenger for a firman. Being on the 
point of starting for England I told Lord Ponsonby that the 
firman would be refused, and proposed to leave with him a 
sealed note to be used in that case. It turned out as I had 
expected, and a messenger was despatched home announcing 
the refusal; my note having, however, been sent to its 
destination, on the following day the firman came, and a 
second messenger was despatched with it. The matter pre- 
sented this difficulty only, that it was proposed through a 
Dragoman. The Turk through whom it was subsequently 
obtained was no other than Achmet Pasha — against whom, 
from that hour the inveterate hostility of England was 
directed, on the score of his being "Russian" These 
facts were brought to light in the trial of the Times, 
for a libel on the Dragoman system, at the instance of 
M. Pisani, the Dragoman in question, who was forced by 
Lord Ponsonby to attempt his vindication against the state- 
ments made in that journal by Dr. Millingen, its then cor- 
respondent. 

On a recent visit to Constantinople, I leamt this 
further incident. One of the Foreign Ministers visiting 
the Chief of the Dancing Dervishes, a favourite of Sultan 
Mahmoud, observed a snuffbox of exquisite workmanship, 
with a butterfly, the emblem of their order, in diamonds and 
enamel ; it was a present from the Russian Ambassador. 



THE CANAL OF SUEZ. 



425 



The Dervish then brought out a large atlas, in which 
Mesopotamia, was marked to illustrate the proposed sta- 
tions for the English expedition, and began to expatiate on 
the deep and perfidious purposes of England in her pre- 
tended desire of navigating the Euphrates. On inquiry, 
my friend discovered that these visits of the Eussian Ambas- 
sador, which were made by night, and the presentation of 
these gifts, had coincided with the demand for the firman. 
Had the firman been refused, it would have been by the 
snuffbox : henceforward the principle would have been intro- 
duced into the policy of the Porte of setting its face against 
all schemes for communication with India through its terri- 
tory. 

If before the event any one had said " England with all her 
power will be shipwrecked in her attempt to obtain a firman 
for the Euphrates by an enamelled Butterfly, and after it has 
been refused, a traveller will obtain it by a billet of a couple 
of lines, 5, would he not have been considered insane? 

As to the Cairo Eailway, the obstruction arose from the 
pretensions of the Pasha of Egypt ; so soon as these were 
withdrawn, the firman was granted ; but had the meeting in 
London occurred a month earlier, it would have been equal 
to a snuffbox ; the language there held would have ex- 
asperated the Porte and encouraged the Pasha. Eussia 
had, however, an interest in that railway which I shall pre- 
sently explain. 

The Government of Turkey has not been slow to appre- 
ciate the value of steam and the advantage of opening up 
channels of commerce ; this one is especially of value, 
and affects her in regard to Arabia precisely as it does 
England in regard to India. She has at heart the incor- 
poration of Arabia, by which she would confirm her tenure of 
Egypt ; the matter is of importance not only in a military 
and political bat also in a religious point of view, for the 
pilgrimage to the Holy Cities would be brought within reach 
of every inhabitant of the Empire. There is, however, one 
indispensable condition, that is, that it shall be proposed and 



426 



THE LEVANT AND BED SEA. 



effected in a manner which shall not infringe upon the rights 
of the Porte or endanger its sovereignty. 

How it may be asked could a man so bold and practical 
as Mehemet Ali, so long in possession of Egypt, so anxious 
to make it the seat and passage of commerce, neglect 
this work? It was incessantly pressed on his attention, 
not only by his engineer, M. Linan, but by other scientific 
men, and merchants, the Consuls of France and the United 
States, the present director of the Austrian railways, 
&c. ; there was no want of scientific data, and no lack 
of offers of capital. But whenever the canal was urged 
he objected that there was another project which might 
be preferable, namely, a railway, and when that was 
pressed he had a hankering for the canal. Thus both were 
staved off, the one by the other, and this was explained as 
a balancing of the influence of England and France ! the 
Canal was a French project * the Railway was the English 
one ; in fact it was the story of the Canal of the Danube 
over again. 

* " Having been generally misinformed on matters of that kind 
in Egypt, I paid little or no attention to what I heard respecting them. 
It was commonly said there, that the French, Austrians, and Ameri- 
cans desired the canal, and that the English opposed them, on the 
ground that it would facilitate the intercourse of other nations with 
India." — Letter of a Resident in Cairo. 

" He (the Pasha) was particularly careful to guard against the 
impression in the first instance that he wished the railway made to 
Suez : as I afterwards learned, the reason of that was, that the 
French interests are very much opposed to the establishment of a 
railway across the Isthmus, believing, rightly or wrongly I do not 
Tcnotv, that it is much better for France and all the countries lying on 
the Mediterranean to have a canal instead of a railway, in order to 
make the Mediterranean the high road to India both for passengers 
and for commercial purposes ; therefore they have for a long time 
been endeavouring to establish, the feasibility of making a canal 
across the Isthmus. 

" Q. I think you said the French interest was hostile to a line 
between Alexandria and Suez. Is it equally so to one between Alex- 
andria and Cairo ? A. Quite so" — Evidence of Mr. Stephenson 
before the select Committee for Steam Communication with India. 



THE CAXAL OE SUEZ. 



427 



The Eailway, which for five and twenty years has served 
to stave off the Canal, is now at length being earned into 
execution ; what is gained by it for the Indian Trade ? 
A powerful body with local interests determinately hostile to 
the Canal, and in a position to render that hostility effective. 
The local traffic no doubt may support the Eailway, and 
some of the lighter and more valuable goods may be con- 
veyed by it as far as Cairo, but is that the opening up of 
the Indian and Atlantic Oceans through the Mediterranean 
and Eed Seas ? If the line be hereafter carried on from Cairo 
to Suez you will only have a Eailway, ships will not pass. 
The distance will be 250 miles, and even at the rate of an 
English Eailway the charge will be 10s. a ton in addition to 
the expenses of unlading and relading ; amounting on the 
full freight out and in of a vessel of 1200 tons to £2500, 
— say that the " Erench project " is impracticable, at least 
the English one is absurd. Amru, the Lieutenant of the 
Caliph Omar, made in his day objections to the canal : 
but he had a master who knew better, and who said to him, 
" The Egyptians have persuaded thee, but I will punish thee 
if thou dost not dig the canal so that ships may soil tvpon 
it" and in the seventh month from that time they did sail 
upon it. 

The projects of Louis Ehilippe ran in the line of Mines et 
Forets; those of Louis Xapoleonin that of Canals. His grand 
scheme was the opening of the Isthmus of Eanama, and at 
one time he was prepared to sacrifice to its execution his 
European life and his Imperial prospects. When he came 
into power, his attention was naturally directed to Suez ; 
being the nephew of that Napoleon who, in modern times, 
had revived the project. The matter was forced upon him 
by the rivalry of the engineers of the two countries in Egypt, 
and he naturally imagined that there must be some mis- 
take : consequently he directed his Minister in London, 
M. Walweski, to open the matter with Lord Ealmerston, 
and to suggest concert between the two Governments to 
carry this magnificent work. Imagine the bewilderment of 



428 



THE LEVANT AND BED SEA, 



that diplomatist when he was met with menace and indigna- 
tion, and told, " this a project of yours — England will never 
suffer it." The English Minister had discovered that Louis 
Napoleon wished to send through men-of-war to drive the 
English out of India ! 

Did it want a canal to bring Napoleon to Egypt on his 
intended way to India ? With Malta in your hands, you are 
nearer than France to Egypt, if it signified one iota whether 
France was far or near. It is not France who menaces 
India ; she once held extensive sway there, and lost it by 
England's maritime superiority. Whatever brings India 
nearer to Europe renders that superiority more complete ; 
and if any measure could thwart the project of making the 
Mediterranean a "French Lake," it is one which should 
carry through it the full current of British trade. 

The idea is one which can scarcely be announced with a 
grave countenance, and how the Franks of Cairo had been 
led to accept it as they have done is intelligible only through 
the power of inuendo and whisper. When reasons have been 
sought for it, people have contented themselves with referring 
to Napoleon's expedition, when he at once aimed at India 
and proposed the Canal. His projects against India were 
based upon the possession of Egypt ; he proposed the Canal 
in the interest of Turkey after these plans were abandoned. 
The schemes on India are thus referred to by Thiers : — 

" Egypt was the true intermediary position between 
Europe and India. To ruin England it sufficed for France to 
establish herself there. Thence she could dominate for ever 
the Mediterranean, and convert it, according to one of the 
expressions of Napoleon, into a "French lake ; thence she would 
be in a position either to ensure the existence of the Turkish 
Empire or to seize the best portion of the spoils. (The erro- 
neousness of this position Napoleon afterwards understood 
and acted upon at the conference of Erfurt.) Once established 
in Egypt two courses were open — the first to create a marine 
in the Eed Sea, and by means of it to destroy the British 
establishments in India, or to make of it a colony, and an 



THE CANAL OP SUEZ. 



429 



entrepot by means of which Trade would abandon the route 
of the Cape of Good Hope. 5 '* 

The statement I have made will appear incredible. It will 
pass belief that an English minister should have opposed 
such a work ; but what can I urge more than I have done ? — 
I have shown the interest of Bussia, the dependence in every 
case of the minister ; I have referred to facts, I have given 
names, — if what I say is not the truth it must be con- 
tradicted ; if not contradicted, it is that contradiction is 
impossible : these details have been published before and 
have not been contradicted. Unless it was an object to 
prevent the canal, must it not have been made ? It is a case 
in which there is no possibility of hesitation, or of a middle 
course. The lay reader may indeed object that Govern- 
ments have nothing to do with promoting private enterprises ; 
that it is enough for them to afford protection when they 
are formed, and that it would be an improper interference if 
they lent their authority to private schemes, or influenced 
capitalists in the placing of their funds. What then shall 
we say if we find the Government influence not only of this, 
but of other countries exerted to call into existence a counter 
project, for which favour is bespoken because realising the 
very ends proposed by the plan it is devised to frustrate ? 

It will be perceived that I refer to Panama, and the Isth- 
mus* of Darien, and doubtless it will occasion surprise that I 
should speak in such terms of that vast and incomparable 
enterprise: that surprise will be increased though diverted 
to another quarter, if the reader will take the trouble to 
examine a globe, compasses in hand : he will then make the 
discovery that by Panama the distance not only from London 
but also from New York, to the Indian Ocean is greater not 
only than by Suez, but also than by the Cape of Good Hope ! 

The local traffic of the back of America and that of the 
United States with China no doubt would be greatly bene- 
fited by this passage, but is it upon this basis that the 



* Histoire de la Revolution, vi, 428. 



430 



THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 



scheme is constructed, or from this source that the returns 
are to come ? It is the connection of the East and the West, 
that is proposed. Consequently all those who enter into the 
scheme, whether speculatively or practically, must be opposed 
to the Suez project : from the moment that the other is sub- 
scribed for, being of vast dimensions, a powerful organisation 
will be created, possessing the subject, controlling all the 
organs of publicity, counteracting in secret and scouting in 
public the counter scheme, if it ever comes into public 
notice, a circumstance scarcely to be expected seeing that 
the press of Europe is in the hands of Eussia. This is her 
interest in the matter ; she does not want to trade in Califor- 
nia, but she " will not fail to take advantage of every means 
presented by her position to oppose the shorter and safer 
way to the Indian Sea, through the Euphrates or the Isthmus 
of Suez." * What avails it then that the Suez canal be the 
canal for the whole world. She is against it. 

The Isthmus which unites North and South America 
differs from that which unites Africa and Asia, no less in the 
difficulties it presents than in the advantages which it affords. 
The Eealejo was the line selected by Louis Napoleon: he cal- 
culated the cost at £4,000,000 (the distance 278 miles), and 
expected that 900,000 tons of shipping would pass, that 
from Europe paying 10s. a ton, that from America 20$. 
That is to say, a vessel of 1200 tons leaving London or New 
York for Calcutta was to take a circuit of some thousand miles 
for the privilege of paying some thousand pounds. 

The scheme of the French Emperor is, however, a trifle 
compared to the one now in vogue, estimated at the sum of 
£12,000,000 ; not the estimate of those who oppose it, but 
of those who are engaged in promoting it.f This indeed is 
an "American project," to facilitate the trade and the am- 
bition of the United States on the Pacific, but the watchful 
English minister is fortunately at hand. We will see how he 
settles this matter. 

* Nebenius. 

t Consult Dr. Cullen's < Ship Canal of Darien.' 



THE CANAL OF SUEZ. 



431 



By Panama compared with Suez, the voyage from London 
to Calcutta would be lengthened 9,300 miles ; from London 
to Hong Kong, 4,600 ; from New York to Hong Kong, 
1,200; and from New York to Calcutta, 4,500 * The 
expenditure would be greater by three-fourths, f and the traffic 
less by three-fourths. Nevertheless, the English Govern- 
ment oversteps all form and all discretion to promote, to 
suggest, to call into existence the Panama Project, even 
seducing capitalists to investing in it : it positively enters into 
a treaty with the United States for this end. 

When this treaty was signed, it was accepted as an 
evidence of the praiseworthy anxiety of those governments 
to hurry on the march of intellect and the progress of 
civilisation. No one was struck with the extraordinary 
nature and provisions of the act; no one looked at the 
map ; as in the case of the Austrian Treaty for the Danube, 
they took from it their notions of Geography, and all the world 
imagined that this canal was to put in direct communication 
the East and the West. The Atlantic and Pacific were now 
to be joined — who cared for a communication between the 
Mediterranean and the Red Sea, by a cut across the Isthmus, 
the actual road from London to Calcutta, and which would 
join the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, and also to the 
Pacific ? If heard of at all, it was smiled at as a cunning 
but defeated scheme of the envious French. 

The Treaty with the United States is of so strange a na- 
ture that I cannot avoid inserting an abstract of its articles. 
It was signed on the 19th of April 1850, and contains the 
eight following stipulations. 

Aut. 1.— Neither Court to obtain or maintain exclusive 

Via Suez. Via Panama, 

* London to Calcutta . . . 7,920 — 17,280 

New York „ . . . 9,800 — 14,340 

London to Hong Kong . . . 9,660 — 14,340 

New York „ . 11,460 — 12,640 

t If we take the extreme calculations the Suez Canal would only 
cost one twelfth. 



432 THE LEYAXT AND EED SEA. 



control, or occupy or erect fortifications, or form local alli- 
ances, &c. 

Art. 2. — Not to be liable to blockade in case of war. 

Art. 3. — To encourage and protect all enterprises for the 
opening of the canal. 

Art. 4. — To exercise their influence with the local Govern- 
ment, to facilitate the enterprise, and obtain at each extremity 
a free port. 

Art. 5. — TYhen completed, to protect it against hostile 
attack. 

Art. 6. — To invite all other Governments to join in this 
convention. 

Art. 7. — To hasten by all means the execution of the 
work, by encouragement held out to parties proposing to 
undertake it. 

Art. 8. — Contracting parties wish not only to effect a 
"particular object," but also to establish a "general princi- 
ple," but a general principle limited to inter-communication 

between the Atlantic and Pacific. 

There were other considerations besides those of mere 
statistics which one would have supposed likely to influence 
the British Cabinet — the relative exposure of the two chan- 
nels in case of war to a coup de main. Any European or 
Transatlantic enemy of England might send an expe- 
dition, to the Isthmus of Darien with the greatest facility 
and secrecy ; by entrenching themselves upon any one point 
they could stop the passage ; they would have a long line 
to operate upon, strong positions to get possession of, no 
local power to impede them, extensive coasts to land upon, 
and the Pacific on the one side, and the Atlantic on the 
other, to approach or retire by : our whole navy, locked up 
at the two extremities, instead of affording protection, would 
only invite attack. 

Egypt presents the exact counterpart. In case of war your 
Indian traffic would no longer by haying to double the 



THE CANAL OF SUEZ. 



433 



Cape, be exposed either to France, or the United States. As 
regards the latter, the protection you would have to afford 
would then have to extend no further than the gut of Gibraltar. 
In the Mediterranean you would be exposed to France, but 
you have always had the supremacy in that sea, and unless 
you have it, you cannot cany on war with her. Hitherto 
you have had for warlike purposes to maintain your supre- 
macy in the Mediterranean and simultaneously to employ 
a large portion of your navy to protect your Indian 
traffic in its course of 10,000 miles. From the latter drain 
you would be relieved by the passage through Egypt. The 
two seas which give access to Egypt on either side are 
themselves confined by a gut, both of which are in your 
hands, and close to which you have naval stations, so that 
no armament can be within reach, without at least your 
knowledge. But being superior at sea in the Mediter- 
ranean, Egypt is entirely in your hands ; you are equally 
superior in the Red Sea ; there is no one there to contest it 
with you. No attempt could be made by any foreign power on 
the canal, unless by an expedition of sufficient force to conquer 
Egypt itself. England's power of coercion over the govern- 
ment of Egypt is absolute : in the height of the naval 
strength of Mehemet Ali, a single line of battle ship with a 
frigate sealed up Alexandria. 

In the first speech he ever made — the Demosthenian oration, 
which, in a short hour, brought his fame from germ to 
maturity, Canning exclaimed, " Secrecy is Treason ! " The 
secrecy which he denounced bore on the motives of the Eng- 
lish Government in respect to its dealing with other States : 
England, in his opinion, had no legitimate object which would 
not have been advanced by publicity. On the other hand, 
Eussia has no object which publicity would not frustrate. 
Secrecy is, therefore, as essential a portion of her system as 
it is essentially opposed to England's interest and character ; 
we may rest assured that wherever there is concealment there 
is a Eussian hand at work, and a Eussian object in view. 

19 



434 THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 



That secrecy is now no longer confined to the reciprocal 
operations of governments, but grasps also the most im- 
portant of material enterprises. It must be evident to 
any one, that if the objection secretly made by Lord 
Palmerston to M. Walweski had been publicly stated, whether 
in Parliament, or in a document, instead of attaining its 
end, it would have produced the very contrary effect ; 
the capital of England would then have effected that 
which the diplomacy of England prevented France from 
attempting. 

I cannot conclude with a more striking fact. If any 
thing could bring home to us the nature and consequences of 
that indirect and un-English process, by which we are repre- 
sented abroad, it would be a practical application such as 
this. If Englishmen could but apprehend it, they could 
not fail to put an end to it. It is endured only because so 
unlike the ordinary dealing of Englishmen, that, despite all 
evidence, its existence cannot be believed. 

Here is a case in which the nation may rectify as well as 
judge. We are seeking for means of investment for super- 
fluous capital : here is a field better than any loan or rail- 
way at home or abroad. The present traffic by the Cape 
amounts to 1,500,000 of tons, we may estimate it by canal 
at 2,000,000 which would soon be largely increased. Esti- 
mating the dues at the half of that sum proposed by Louis 
Napoleon, for Panama (the quarter upon American ves- 
sels), the yearly returns would amount to half a million, 
or 20 per cent, upon the original investment. There is no 
difficulty whatever in the enterprise, if those who conduct 
it steer clear of Downing Street in England, and the British 
Embassy at Constantinople. 

But if English merchants are unfit to walk by themselves, 
is there no capital available in France? 

We have heard much of the spirit of enterprise of the 
Anglo-Saxon race; we have heard much of what its energy was 
capable when planted in the New World, and freed from the 



THE CANAL OF SUEZ. 



435 



governing trammels which oppress it in the Old : if so let 
it appear. Here is something worthier than buccaneering 
expeditions against Cuba, or civilising armaments for Japan. 
The United States have pretensions to justify and character 
to regain, no less than interests to advance and fortune to 
pursue. The parental stock in these Islands pleases itself 
sometimes in the anticipation of their future greatness, 
strange if it should have to look to them for its own present 
extrication. 



Note. 

HUMBOLDT ON THE SUEZ CANAL. 

" The History of the Survey of the Earth includes the 
narration of all the means by which nations have been drawn 
closer together, by which greater portions of the globe have 
become accessible, and the sphere of man's knowledge has 
been widened. One of the noblest of these means was the 
actual formation of a navigable route from the Red Sea to 
the Mediterranean by the Nile. At the point where the two 
Continents, which are scarcely connected together, admit the 
waters of the sea to the farthest extent between them, Sesostris 
(Ramses Miamim) according to the representations of Aristotle 
and Strabo, or at any rate Necho (Neku) commenced the 
digging of a canal, but was frightened by some oracular words 
of the priests, and again gave it up. Herodotus saw and 
described one which had been completed, opening with the 
Nile a little above Bubastus ; it was the work of Darius 
Hystaspis, of the family of the Achaemenides. This canal 
having fallen into disuse, was afterwards so completely 
reconstructed by Ptolemy Philadelphus, that it kept alive 
the trade of Ethiopia, Arabia, and India until the time of the 
Eoman Empire, until Marcus Aurelius, and probably as late 
as Septimius Severus ; and this for more than four centuries 
and a half, even though it was not navigable at every season 



436 



THE LEVANT AND EED SEA. 



of the year, in consequence of its artificial contrivances for 
enclosing the water. For the similar object of promoting 
commerce in the Red Sea, the houses at Myos Hormos and 
Berenice were carefully built, and connected with Coptus by 
means of a splendid artificial road." — Cosmos, vol. ii, p. 200. 



CONCLUSION. 



The author of the " Progress of Eussia in the East " has 
selected for the period illustrated in his map that between 
the accession of Peter and the accession of Nicholas. Since 
the accession of the present Emperor, her advance has been 
greater than in the previous period : the victims are Poland, 
Hungary, and Denmark, — the work of dismemberment 
being completed for the first, and commenced for the latter 
two. 

During the first period, there stood against her in the 
West an array of substantive power, which she might over- 
reach but could not coerce. In the course of the second, all 
power and purpose of resistance has been swept away. 

The East presents a different picture. It was on that side 
that the power of Peter first developed itself : he planned the 
expulsion of the Turks from Europe, he commanded the 
Caspian by a fleet ; his influence and alliances extended to 
the banks of the Indus ; and he had secured by Treaty more 
than one half of Persia. Nadir Shah arose, and Eussia was 
driven back behind the Caucasus : the Turks signally 
defeated her in the West and drove her back behind 
the Dnieper. The accession of Nicholas was followed 
by a Persian and a Turkish war, which re-advanced the 
position of Eussia to the point which she had occupied 
ninety-two years before, and even beyond it : Persia, un- 
der her dictation, was expending its last resources in an 
invasion of Herat as the means of reaching India : the 
Ottoman empire, tottering to its fall, was signing, 
with the Eussians encamped in the Bosphorus, a Treaty 



438 



CONCLUSION. 



to exclude its Protectors from the Black Sea. Without the 
appearance of a conqueror, she has again been driven back : 
she has incurred no defeat such as that of the Pruth ; there has 
been no new adjustment of frontiers, no revision of Treaties. 
Her position has been reversed by the restoration of a 
People. It has been restored by adversity ; by the blows 
she struck, and the humiliations she inflicted. But disasters 
might have crushed not tempered the Ottomans, had it 
not been for the protection afforded by the Caucasus, the 
example held out by its defenders, and the shame of their 
success. Here is the shield under cover of which Persia 
has regained courage, and Turkey resumed strength. A 
small population, without the learning of the nations of the 
West, and unaided by the wise counsels of their Governments, 
has rendered this service to humanity. A new struggle 
indeed is opening, but it commences at this point. 



Tucker Printer, Perry's Place, Oxford Street. 



ERRATA. 



e 25, line 11, for Charles III, read Charles II. 

32, line 5, for still less than, read still less to it than. 

33, line 19, for of, read at. 

65, line 30, for that now the, read that the. 

68, line 21, for that form, read that of form. 

113, line 25, for point only excluded, read point excluded. 

123, line 24, for they, read there, 

124, last paragraph, dele " 

125, first paragraph, ctete " 

135, lines 32, 33, for sortes des gens, read sorte de gens. 



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